bliss stage - bliss state {interim stage}
TRANSCRIPT
Interim StageBy Ben Lehman
PDF Version • September 2007
These child soldierskill and die
for our games
Let their bloodsanctify a new age
beyond warbeyond peace
Bliss Stage
This text is copyright Anno Domini MMV
to MMVII
By Ben Lehman in Nostalgia Studio
This is our game.
Layout was done using InDesign
CS2, and a lot of help from
Joshua A.C. Newman. The fonts
are all part of the Myriad family.
The text was written on an iBook
G4 and a PowerBook G4 using
TextEdit. Some editing was done
by Rich Forest, but it was not all
integrated in the rush to publica-
tion. I apologize in advance.
The ANIMa and remote sketches
are by Jake Richmond, and are
copyright him.
This is the Interim Stage edition
of the text, produced as a PDF in
AD MMVII.
For Emily and Alexis
Table of ContentsIntroduction
What is this game and how do you play it?
The Structure of the Game
Introducing the Example Players
The Structure of the Book
910
12
13
15
BackgroundSeven Years
Why I am a Pilot
The ANIMa
A Timeline
Why I am an Anchor
1718
20
22
24
26
The First EngagementBefore You Start
Picking a GM
Setting Up
Making Up Characters
Picking Out Your Hopes
Pilot Templates
Anchor Templates
2930
30
32
38
48
51
58
The BasicsCharacter Ownership
Speaking in Voice
6161
63
ValuesA Pilot’s Values: Terror, Trauma, and Bliss
A Relationship’s Values: Intimacy, Trust, and
Stress
Harm and Death
6566
67
70
ActionsThe Common Structure of Actions
Types of Actions
7374
75
The First Action 83
Mission ActionsCalling for a Mission Action
Initiating a Mission Action
Playing out a Mission Action
The Climax of a Mission Action
The Consequences of a Mission Action
Closing a Mission Action and Bridging to Other
Mission Actions
Special Considerations
8990
91
91
96
98
103
106
Interlude ActionsCalling for an Interlude Action
Selecting a Judge and Initiating an Interlude
Action
Playing out an Interlude Action
Closing the Interlude: Trust Breaking, Judging,
and Consequences
Special Considerations
111112
113
115
117
123
Briefing ActionsCalling for a Briefing Action
Initiating a Briefing Action
Playing out a Briefing Action
Closing a Briefing Action
Consequences of Shirking
Special Considerations
127128
129
129
130
131
132
Mission PlanningTheme
Goals
Mulltiple Pilots on a Mission
Related Goals
Rewards and Consequences
Secret Goals
Wild Card Goals
Out of Dream Missions
Example Missions
135136
136
138
139
141
143
143
144
144
and Resolution ActionsTraumatic Death
Bliss Out
Resolution Actions
The Final Resolution Action
About Resolving Hopes
Special Considerations
149150
152
153
155
158
158
Special CircumstancesDeath
Pregnancy and Birth
Becoming an Anchor
Becoming a Pilot
Changing Authority Figures
Changing Hopes
Longer Campaigns
Shorter Campaigns
One Pilot Campaigns
Two Player Campaigns
Absent Players
Guest Players
An Unstable Group
161162
162
163
163
163
164
164
165
165
166
167
167
168
Advice for PlayOwning your Character and the Heart of the
Game
How to own a Pilot
How to own the Authority Figure
How to own your Secondary Characters
How to own an Anchor
How to be a GM
171172
174
177
179
183
185
Conclusion 195
Inspirations 199
Advertisements 205
9
IntroductionHello! Nice to meet you. My name is Ben, and I wrote the
book which is in your hands right now, and now it falls to
me to welcome you to this book.
Welcome! It’s a pretty simple book, I’m afraid. That’s
because its purpose is not to be entertaining on its own,
rather its purpose is to teach you how to play a game. De-
tailed in this book are that game’s procedures, techniques,
tricks, and strategies.
It’s not a lot of fun to just read about a game without play-
ing it. I recommend you call up some friends right now and
arranging a time to play it. If I’ve done my job, you should
9
10
be able to understand the game just by reading the book
once through, and it’s not that long of a book.
But maybe I haven’t done my job well enough. Do you
need help understanding the rules? Finding people to play
with? With something else? I’m happy to help. Write me an
e-mail at [email protected] and ask. Did you play the
game? Write to me at the same address and let me know
how it went.
Alternatively, you could post at the TAO Games forum at
indie-rpgs.com and tao-games.com There, me and lots of
other people can talk to you about your game, or help you
in getting it started.
What is this game and how do
you play it?Bliss Stage is a game, but it has more in common to a
game that you would play with toys than a card game or
a sporting event. It’s a role-playing game, so the end goal
of the game is to tell a story together with your friends.
While a certain amount of competition will naturally exist
between the players, the ultimate goal will be the share the
authorship of a story. In Bliss Stage this story is the story of
a small group of teenagers and children waging a desper-
ate war for the future of the world.
It is quite likely that you are already familiar with role-
playing games in at least one of the myriad forms that
they take: Massively multiplayer games such as World of
11
Warcraft or EVE, forum or journal roleplay, MUSHes or other
such live online games, live action games like Vampire or
NERO, or other tabletop games like Dungeons and Drag-
ons or Dogs in the Vineyard. In all cases, you will find much
familiar about Bliss Stage, but there will also be number
of differences, so keep your eyes open and don’t make as-
sumptions about how things work.
If you’re not familiar with role-playing games, you’re in for
a treat: role-playing is one of the most fun organized social
activities available anywhere. It’s no more and no less that
telling stories together with your friends.
Storytelling can be more than a little scary. It’s not some-
thing that we’re all skilled at. Improvised story-telling is
worse, because improvising, especially in front of an audi-
ence of friends, can tax even the most creative imagination.
But the experience of sharing stories can make old friends
into better friends and strangers into new ones.
Role-playing was created as an answer to that fear -- we’ve
made a game out of telling stories with your friends. The
game’s rules require everyone to contribute, so there’s not
pressure on one person to get it right, and also provide a
structure to ensure your story will be interesting and speak
from your heart into the hearts of your friends.
During a role-playing game, like with most other creative
media, we imagine fictional characters interacting and
relating and doing exciting things. In a role-playing game,
we’re actively taking the role of the creators of this fiction:
inventing. what the characters do, how they do it, and
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everything else in the story. We might describe this at a
distance -- “he gets up and opens the door” -- or we might
act out the conversations and interactions of the charac-
ters: that doesn’t matter so much. Event to event, action to
action, we’ll watch this story unfold, and it’ll be our story,
that we’ve created together.
It requires a little more work than reading a novel or watch-
ing a show, but I hope you’ll give it a try. If it isn’t more fun
than any of those, I haven’t done my job.
The Structure of the GameSince the story of Bliss Stage is about a war, the whole
story of the game taken together is called a campaign.
A campaign of Bliss Stage is like a television series or a
manga serial: it will take a long time to play out! You can’t
play it all in one night. You’ll need to divide up your play
into engagements. Each time you get together to play Bliss
Stage, that’s an engagement. Depending on how you play
the game, a campaign should take between four and ten
engagements of two or three hours each.
So after you’ve played the game once, make sure to sched-
ule with everyone there for your next engagement. How
this works out is up to you. Some people like to schedule
their Bliss Stage play on particular days (everyone other
Thursday we play Bliss Stage) and others who have more
hectic lives may just play when they find the time, with no
set schedule.
13
Engagements are going to be the big social division of
your play. An engagement is itself divided up into smaller
units: actions. Actions are the fundamental unit of play in
Bliss Stage. During an action, different players control dif-
ferent characters inside the game world, and we see them
doing things, dealing with each other, and any other parts
of their fictional lives. An action is roughly the length of a
scene in a play, or a chapter in a manga serial. It’s a little
shorter than a chapter in a book, and lot shorter than an
episode of a television series. An engagement will usually
consist of about 10-20 actions, but if you do less or more
that’s not a problem, it just means that your campaign will
be shorter or longer.
Introducing the Example
PlayersOne technique I’ll be using throughout the book is having
these four example players speak up and give you advice
for how to play the game well. I guess I should just let them
introduce themselves.
Maria: So, since I’m the GM, I guess it falls to me to introduce us. We’re the example play-ers of the the game. Throughout the book, you’ll be seeing little segments of our play, and we’ll also be offering commentary in the text. Some of us are fictional people that Ben totally made up, others of us are based on real playtesters of the game.
Maria: Hi, everyone. I’m Maria. I’m the Game Master (GM for short) for the group, which means that I’m the leader and arbiter. I’ll be jumping
14
in to share advice for other people who might GM the game.
Damien: I’m Damien. I’m totally new to playing role-playing games at all. I’m here because my friend Maria thought I might like it. Since I’m new, I might be kind of quiet lots of the time, but I’m going to be asking questions whenever I get confused by something.
Chris: Hello to all you people out there in reader-land. I’m Chris. I’m another player of the game, a friend of Maria’s from when I directed a series of Primetime Adventures a couple of months back. I’ll be stepping in now and again to point out some of the subtleties of the rules, and other random stuff.
Phoebe: I’m Phoebe, nice to meet you. I’m another player of the game, a friend of Chris’s from way back. I’ll be stepping in from time to point out some things you might otherwise miss, and also just to be chatty.
15
The Structure of the BookFirst things first, this book is going to give you some of the
fictional background for Bliss Stage. Then, we’ll take you
through everything you need to know to play the game
for the first time, step-by-step, and teach you most of the
rules of the game along the way. After that, they’ll be some
bits about other things that might come up during your
play, have a little bit more about the fictional background
of play, and then give an extended example of set-up and
on-going play of the game. Lastly, they’ll be a conclusion
and some record sheets you can copy to help you play the
game.
So, without further ado, let’s start.
17
BackgroundThe story of Bliss Stage is about hope and love and war in
the near future, about the stuggle of teenagers to define
their own world, and about titanic battles between giant
war machines and their alien opponents.
This chapter will serve to give some background to that
story, so that you will understand how this war came about
and why these desperate soldiers are fighting it despite the
price.
Maria: Not everyone needs to know all the rules of the game to play it: they can learn that as they move along. But it would be a good idea if they were all at least a little familiar with the contents of this chapter.
18
Seven YearsHumanity has been through seven years of darkness, seven
years of want, seven years of violence and death and suffer-
ing and dreams. After all this time, finally we have a chance
to strike back against our oppressors. There has never been
a war more desperate than this war: fought at the greatest
risk with the greatest costs for the greatest gain. Your story
will be about that war. But this story part is not about that
war. That war is your story. This is about how it came to
pass.
Right now, this moment, the very moment that you sit
down to play the game, humanity is struck by an unprec-
edented and mysterious alien attack which the survivors
will name the Bliss. The Bliss is sinister, immediate, and
worldwide: adults are struck by a sudden tiredness, and
those that go to sleep do not awaken. They seem to be in
pleasant dreams, but react to no external stimulus. Within
a week, nearly all of the adult population of the earth is
incapacitated. Society, particularly industrialized society,
falls into total chaos. For the first few months, children are
mostly shell-shocked, and try their best to live out their
ordinary lives. But, as food runs scarce, and the reality of the
situation becomes apparent, the survivors turn to looting,
violence, and gang warfare. As food and supplies become
scarcer, the suffering becomes more terrible. Disease and
animal attacks claim even more lives than warfare. Those
that grow too old fall into the Bliss much as their parents
did.
To make matters worse, within two years the aliens develop
or simply deploy their remote drone technology. While the
19
aliens are unable to easily affect our world from their home
in the dream world, their remotes bridge that gap in a ter-
rifying and effective way. Existing in both the dream world
and the real world, they are gigantic automatons wrought
in flesh and metal. With fiery rays and noxious smokes,
these remotes lay waste to any outposts of human civiliza-
tion. Heavily armored, they are effectively invulnerable. You
must run or you must die. Within a year, there is no place in
the world still safe for humanity.
And that is life for the next five years -- a life lived in tunnels
and pits, running and hiding, full of violence and disease
and fear and doubt, wretchedly clawing for survival, a
dwindling species of children with a future of darkness, fire,
and pain.
But that is not the end of the story. There is still hope for
humanity’s future. A small group of survivors, led by a
still-waking adult, have managed to reverse engineer the
alien remotes, and have used this technology to make a
new generation of weapons that can be used to strike at
humanity’s enemies in their world of dreams. This weapon
is called an Alien Numina Inversion Machine -- or ANIMa
-- and it allows a teenaged pilot to enter the dream world
and form a mechanized battle-suit out of the spirits of her
friends, lovers, and enemies. With this weapon, she can
fight the aliens on their own terms, striking at the very
heart of their occupation. Now, after seven years of despair,
this brave group of soldiers are striking the first blows of
a war that will determine the fate of humanity, earth, and
their own hearts.
In the game of Bliss Stage, you will tell their story.
20
Why I am a Pilot“I’m a pilot because my father was a marine, and his father
was a marine, and his father was a marine. Marines never
lose, marines never surrender, and I’m never going to give
up this fight.”
“I’m a pilot because I don’t want my little sister to ever have
to go through what I went through. She deserves a better
world than the one I’ve got.”
“I’m a pilot because I’ve got a two year old son, and if I
could protect him I don’t know what I’d do.”
“I’m a pilot because I’m damned good at it, and there’s no
way I’m leaving it up you yahoos to save the human race.”
“I’m a pilot because the aliens took everything from me
-- my family, my friends, my life, and now I’m damned well
going to take everything from them.”
“I’m a pilot because my dreams are the only place I can
ever get things done.”
“I’m a pilot because I can get some sleep.”
“I’m a pilot because there’s no way in hell I’m giving up
now, after all I’ve been through.”
BE AN ANIMa PILOT
SAVEHUMANITYMeet at the intersection of Main and 7th at sundown on Saturdays. Do not try to attack the meeting site. Our representatives will bring no food or supplies, and we will respond with OVERWHELMING FORCE if necessary.
22
The ANIMaThe ANIMa creche is a complicated piece of technology. To
operate it requires two participants: A pilot, who is always a
teenager, and an anchor, who often is as well. To operate it
requires an enormous degree of skill, finesse, special train-
ing, and natural talent.
The pilot must be dressed in a special suit, plugged into a
startling array of monitoring technology, suspended into
a vat of motion resistant goo (else he will sleepwalk) and
then fed induced brainwaves on an alien frequency that is
not well understood or easily controlled.
At the core of the creche, obscured by all the superstition
and machinery, are large chunks of the brain of an alien
drone. Perhaps these are actually the things that make the
ANIMa work, and the rest is just for show. Who knows? The
whole thing is elaborate, and built mostly from guesswork,
intuition, and more than a little faith.
When it is in operation, the pilot is being fed complicated
brainwave patterns that he is struggling to keep up with.
The anchor, meanwhile, is in the waking world, monitoring
the pilot’s vital signs and speaks to him via a special close-
circuit radio headset, carefully guiding him through the
dream and interpreting the readings that she is taking as
sensory images so that the pilot may process them.
The pilot, meanwhile, is deeply in the dream, barely aware
of the outside world at all. To support them in the night-
marish world, he calls on his friends, lovers, and enemies
23
in the shape of a personalized suit of mechanical armor,
which is colloquially also called an ANIMa. While most of
these suits look similar, they are highly customized de-
pending on the relationship between the anchor and the
pilot, and the relationships that the pilot brings into the
dream with him.
Once in the dream, the pilot can be easily lost, and once
lost, often suffers a heart attack, mental collapse, or other
stress-related injuries. Thus, the anchor is given a “panic
button” which hits the pilot with a heavy but not quite seri-
ous electrical shock, waking him from the dream. Ideally,
the anchor can bring the dream to a natural conclusion,
waking the pilot slowly back into the world. In practice,
though, the panic button is often used by lazy or cautious
anchors, and such “natural wakings” are quite rare.
24
A Timeline
Right nowNearly all of the adult humans in the world succumb to a
strange attack -- they fall asleep and cannot be awakened.
They are not dead, nor do they seem to be suffering from
hunger, thirst, or fear. In fact, they seem pleasantly happy.
Because of this, it is called the Bliss.
+ 1 monthElectricty, water, and sewage have all stopped working.
Society begins to fray.
+1 yearThe surviving children have established themselves in a
new, loose social order of gangs. Some begin to rebuild,
some are content to loot, murder, and rape. The effects of
the Bliss on older teenagers are seen. Adolescents report
seeing and even communicating with strange creatures in
their own dreams.
+2 yearsTargetted attacks into the real world, launched by dream-
creatures, begin. These attacks are carried out via remote
drones -- some are planes or other vehicles but most take a
giant human shape. The tenuous society that children have
formed is shattered.
25
+5 yearsA small but organized group, backed by a surviving adult,
manages to destroy an alien remote -- the first victory in a
five year war.
+6 yearsUsing technology scavenged from destroyed and captured
remotes, a resistance cell manages to create an ANIMa
creche: a device which a teenager may use to enter the
dream physically. Initial experiments are disastrous.
+7 yearsPresent time. Over the last year, trial and error has pro-
duced a technique by which pilots (as they are now called)
can create an ANIMa, an armor for protection against the
dream and a weapon to attack the dream aliens. Now, for
the first time in seven years, there is a chance to for human-
ity to strike back. Now, for the first time in seven years,
there is hope.
26
Why I am an Anchor“I’m an anchor because I wasn’t quick enough to be a pilot,
but I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“I’m an anchor because I’ve always been really good at
math, and it really helps to have someone who can read all
the displays.”
“I’m an anchor because I built this machine from the
ground up, and no one else knows how to read it like I do.”
“I’m an anchor because I love him.”
“I’m an anchor because I would never leave her alone in
that place, in those dreams.”
“I’m an anchor because I’m never going to let another pilot
die on me.”
“I’m an anchor because it sure as hell beats running away
from gangs, tribes, and wild dogs.”
“I don’t have time for this. Shut up and leave me alone!”
Meet at the intersection of Main and 7th at sundown on Saturdays. Do not try to attack the meeting site. Ourrepresentatives will bring no food or supplies, and we will respond with OVERWHELMING FORCE if necessary.
GIANTS
NOMORE!
With your help, we can drive off the alien menace once and for all!
29
The First Engagement
This is a general guide for the first time you’re sitting down
to play Bliss Stage: how to go about setting up the game. If
you’re starting a new game (either because you’re play-
ing with a different group or you’ve finished another one),
you’ll want to refer back to this section, too.
30
Before You StartInvite some friends to play! There should be 3-7 of you, all
together. For a first game, a smaller number is probably
better. Pick friends who you like, get along with, you think
would enjoy the game, and most importantly pick friends
whose creativity you respect: You’re going to be collaborat-
ing with them on a pretty big project, after all.
You’re going to need to get your tools together, too. Down-
load and print out the play sheets from
www.tao-games.com, and have some pencils, some dice
(the ordinary sort will do) and erasers handy.
Before you start playing, take time to socialize a bit with
each other. Catch up on your ordinary lives. If there’s any-
one who doesn’t know everyone, make sure that they get
introduced. I like to cook, so I always cook a big fancy meal
for my Bliss Stage players. I know people who do some
theater warm-ups. You could do anything that helps you
relax and get comfortable with each other, but make sure
that you don’t skip it. Every engagement, you should have
something to do as people outside of the game. Bliss Stage
engagements are primarily social engagements, and you
should take time to relate to each other as people and not
just fellow players.
Picking a GMOnce you’re settled down and ready to play, pick a game
master (GM). Let’s be honest: since you’re the one with the
book, it’s probably going to be you. But, if you’ve played a
31
table-top role-playing game before, don’t worry! It’s way
less of a headache to be a GM for Bliss Stage than you
might otherwise expect.
Like in many other tabletop games and in MMOs, the
primary responsibility of the game master is to keep the
game running. In Bliss Stage, this means that she facilitates
consensus between the players, comes up with the general
shape of the fictional conflicts of the game, and is ready
with an idea when everyone else is stumped. Secondarily,
she controls the authority figure, the character who leads
the resistance group.
Chris: Here’s a shout to old-hands at table-top roleplaying games: a GM in Bliss Stage isn’t the same as a GM in a lot of other games. For ex-ample, the primary job of the GM in Bliss Stage is to facilitate consensus amongst the players, rather than to throw out their own ideas. Keep an eye out for these things, and don’t assume that the GM has a different role, different respon-sibilities, or a different relationship to the rules just because that’s the way that other games do things.
Pick someone to be the GM who has some experience with
the game, or is trusted a lot by everyone in the group, or
most especially someone who wants to do it. Once you’ve
picked a GM, move on to group set-up.
Maria: So, even though Chris probably knows this game better than me, I’m going to be the GM this time since it was my idea. Everyone okay with that?
32
Damien: Uh, sure...
Phoebe: Yup!
Chris: Duh.
Setting up
Once you’ve picked a GM, take some time to talk about
the resistance group that your story is going to be about,
and the world that they live in. It’s a resistance group near
where you live, they have at least 10 or so members, they
have access to technology which allows them to enter the
dream world and form ANIMa to fight aliens with, and they
are led by a still-waking adult. The other elements are up to
you.
Here are some questions to get you talking. Cover enough
of them that you all feel comfortable with the world that
your story in. Don’t feel like you have to stick to all of them.
The discussion should take about 20-40 minutes.
Where is the group located?It has to be located near where you are playing. So, where
nearby would be a good place for a group of survivors to
congregate after society falls apart? If you’re in a rural area,
it might be a farm or even just a patch of wilderness that
the group has developed. In a city, it might be an apart-
ment complex, a subway station, or a police station. If
you’re near a military base or university, what about that?
33
What resources does the group have at its
disposal?The group clearly has at least one ANIMa creche and the
means to operate it, but what about food, water, sanitation,
medical supplies, electricity, shelter, clothing, and so on?
Probably the group will have easy access to some of these
things, and have a more difficult time with other things.
How do they get the resources that they need?
Are there other groups of survivors in
the area? What are relations with them like? Does the group use its
ANIMa to protect others? Do the other groups have ANIMa
of their own? What non-human threats does the group
face in the real world?
What non-piloting and anchoring tasks does
the group need?Depending on the circumstances, it might need any of
farmers, weavers, scouts, warriors for fighting with real-life
enemies, animal husbands, technicians, smiths, machinists,
story-tellers, artists, religious leaders, scientists. Probably
people will fill more than one role. What does the group
lack, what do they have too much of?
What are the aliens like?Are they like people? Are they giant horrid monstrosities?
Words written on air? Collections of eyes and wings and
fire, like angels in the bible? Black tentacled things from out
of HP Lovecraft’s nightmares? Screaming faces shaped into
34
people? Draw out from your own nightmares and scary
stories.
What is the dream world like?While the dream world is accessible to humans only
through their dreams and an ANIMa creche, that does not
mean that it is ephemeral or random like a modern human
dream. Dreams have changed after the Bliss. The dream
world is more immediately physical, more consistent, more
shared. The exact detail of this are up to you, however. The
dream world could be an exact mapping of physical space,
but changed and different somehow. It could be an entire-
ly seperate world unrelated to the waking world. It could
be full of forests, or made of human faces, or the world as
if no person had ever lived there. What’s your dreamworld
like? Like with the aliens, draw from your own nightmares
and scary dreams and you won’t go wrong.
What dream emanations are present?Just as our waking world leaks through into our dreams,
the alien’s dream world leaks through into our waking
world. The post-Bliss world of Bliss Stage has many won-
derful and terrible dream-things in it, of which the alien’s
drones are a single example. What sort of things like this
are near you? How does the group interact with them, if at
all?
Water, in particular, seems to attract these phenomena.
What are the large bodies of water near you and how have
they been changed?
35
Maria: Okay, so for the next step, we need to de-cide where our group is located and some general things about how the world has changed since the apocalypse. Our group is located somewhere near where we’re playing, so probably somewhere in Oakland. What do people think?
Phoebe: I dunno, this seems like a pretty sturdy building, it’s close to Lake Merritt so there’d be fresh water and some space to farm in. How about we just set it right here?
Chris: In my apartment? That’s fucked up.
Phoebe: Really? Well, we can do something else ...
Chris: No, no, I like it, it’s just fucked up.
Maria: Damien, you haven’t said anything, how does that sound to you?
Damien: Fine, I guess...
Maria: Great. Of course, since the Bliss is sup-posed to hit as soon as we start playing the game, the first thing we’ll have to figure out is what happened to our sleeping bodies ...
All: EWW!
Maria: Or not! I guess some things can just get brushed aside. So let’s talk about our group’s general situation. What resources do they have? What resources do they need? Stuff like that.
36
Chris: I think that there’d be a lot of territory wars between gangs for the areas right around the lake, since that’s basically the only big stretch of arable land in the city. Since we’re a really little group, we probably couldn’t compete. So maybe we have a lot of trading arrangements, like we protect them from the aliens and they provide us with so much food.
Damien: Wouldn’t there be a lot of political ten-sion, then?
Phoebe: I think that’s probably good. It could be fodder for interlude actions.
Maria: What about medical supplies and electric-ity? Damien, do you want to suggest something?
Damien: Uh, well, there’s a hospital pretty close by, so let’s say that we’ve actually got a really good supply of medical equipment -- even things like latex gloves and clean needles and so on.
Chris: Yeah, and maybe we got some solar panels of their roof, so we’ve got some electricity, but basically just enough to keep the ANIMa running.
Phoebe: Okay, but someone maybe hooked up some bicycles for emergency electricity, too.
Maria: Nice!
Damien: Great.
Maria: Okay, so what other changes have we seen in the world? There’s supposed to be strange stuff around water.
37
Phoebe: I’ve got it! We’re totally cut off from San Francisco. Anyone who tries to cross over the bridge just doesn’t come back. Also, bits and pieces of people’s dreams are floating around in the bay.
Chris: People totally fish them out to trade with!
Damien: Huh. Maybe that’s something we need for our ANIMa-things?
Phoebe: Awesome! So we have to trade for this dream stuff.
Maria: I think that San Francisco is the lo-cal alien outpost. You’re always seeing remotes patrolling the other shore, and there’s strange lights coming up and night. So what are the aliens like. ... Maria: Anyone? Just draw on your nightmares and stuff.
Damien: Oh, crap, I had this crazy dream the oth-er night. There were these people that were made up of other, tinier people.
Phoebe: Like a nesting doll?
Damien: No, more like there were a bunch of tiny people arranged in the shape of a big person.
Chris: Oh, so like fractal people! What if the tiny people are made of tinier people? So it’s like fractal people!
38
Maria: Oh, yeah, and they could make really huge people, too. Yeah, in the dream world, you see huge people dancing around SF.
Chris: Crazy.
Maria: Okay, last thing, let’s make up charac-ters. Who’s the authority figure and who are the pilots and so on?
Making up CharactersNow you’re going to make up the people that compose
your resistance group: the leaders and soldiers in human-
ity’s war against the dream aliens. When you’re doing this,
you should make time to note possibly important relation-
ships between the characters as you come up with them.
In particular keep track of which characters, if any, have
an immediate blood relationship (brother or sister, son or
daughter, mother or father.)
Altogether, you should have no more than thirteen char-
acters in the resistance group, to start. New characters can
always join up afterwards.
You don’t have to answer all of the questions about each
type of character. The questions are there to give you a use-
ful place to start talking about the character, their back-
ground, and their role in the group. Once you’ve got a little
bit of information about them, stop and move along. Don’t
tell their whole story ahead of time.
39
The authority figureThe first character you should all make up is the author-
ity figure. The authority figure is a still-waking adult who
organizes and leads the group, although he himself cannot
pilot an ANIMa, serve as an anchor, and quite possibly has
only a dim understand of how these battles are actually
fought. An authority figure can be officious or friendly,
cowardly or heroic, bold or desperate, but they must nec-
essarily be in charge.
Here are some questions about the
authority figure What’s his name? How old is he? What did he do in his
previous life? How did he come to organize this group?
How does he go about organizing the group? How does
he stay awake? How does he generally act towards pilots?
Although I use the male form for the authority figure, in
practice, they can be either male or female.
PilotsOnce you’ve talked about the authority figure, talk about
pilots and anchors. Pilots are any teenagers in the group
that have the capability or the training to go into the
dream world, form an ANIMa, and fight with it. There
should be at least two pilots in your group, at most enough
so that there is one for every non-GM player. If this is your
first time playing, make sure that there are enough pilots
for everyone.
40
Here are some questions about each pilotWhat’s her name? How did he survive until now? Has
she been a member of the group for a long time and, if
not, how did he join? How does he feel about piloting an
ANIMa? Why is she a pilot? Pick a pilot template for the
character (see pg 51).
Picking AnchorsThe GM should pick a number of anchors somewhere
around the number of pilots, at least two and no more
than one for each non-GM player. Just pick the special
abilities (see pg 58), and give them the names of your
unrequited crushes.
Here are some questions about each anchor Is she an experienced anchor? Has she seen pilots die
before? How old is she (most anchors are teenagers, but
some might be younger)? Why is she an anchor? How does
she feel about it? How does she relate to pilots? What other
roles, if any, does she have in the group?
Secondary charactersAfter you have pilots, anchors, and the authority figure, fill
out the rest of your group with secondary characters. Try to
keep the group size between ten and thirteen. Secondary
characters are people who aren’t anchors or pilots, but are
important members of the group anyway.
41
Here are some questions about each
secondary characterHow did he join the group? What kind of person is she?
How old is he? What sort of role, if any, does she fill for the
group? What’s his name? Why isn’t she a pilot or an anchor?
What are his feelings about the pilots and the anchors?
Distribute OwnershipOnce you’ve worked out the characters, decide who is go-
ing to own what character to start. They’ll be more about
ownership of a character later (pg 61 and pg 172), but for
right now let’s just say that ownership means that you take
responsibility for that character while you’re playing the
game: you say what she says and how she acts.
A few simple rules for distributing ownership
over the charactersThe GM must own the authority figure. The GM may not
own any pilots or anchors.
No player may own more than one pilot. No player
should own more than one anchor.
No player should own two characters who have a close
relationship: If two characters are lovers, or are brother
and sister, or some such, they should not be owned by
the same player.
Try to make sure that each player owns a roughly equal
number of characters. Err on the side of the GM owning
more characters.
Don’t worry too much about this! Ownership can change
during the game if you don’t like how it’s working out.
•
•
•
•
42
Choose Your Starting RelationshipsOnce you’ve populated your group and chosen pilot types,
you should select the starting relationships for your pilots.
Each pilot template has a number of starting relationships,
just assign these to each other character in the resistance
group. Then add one intimacy to all direct blood relation-
ships. Do up a pilot record sheet (see the TAO Games
website: www.tao-games.com) for each pilot and note
everything down there.
For relationships between pilots, use the relationship with
the higher intimacy. Then subtract one trust. If this results
in a broken relationship, add bliss as normal. (see more
about this on pg 66)
The intimacy and trust values of the starting relationships
tell you something about the relationships between the
characters. Consult the intimacy-building chart (on pg 69
and 120) and see what sort of relationships people have.
Maria: The first thing we need to do is come up with the authority figure. What do you guys think?
Damien: Authority figure?
Chris: The authority figure is an adult who’s managed to keep himself awake -- uh, or herself -- and is the leader of the resistance group that we’re in.
Damien: Huh.
Phoebe: I’d kinda like to have a tough-guy sort ... maybe a former cop?
43
Chris: Maybe he wanted to be a cop ... but he couldn’t make it.
Maria: Chris, you always want to make author-ity figures so pathetic. No, I like the idea of a former cop.
Chris: Geez, fine.
Maria: Okay, how is he keeping himself awake?
Damien: Huh ...
Chris: Hrm ...
Damien: Okay, so, tell me if this is too weird, but he’s an ex-cop, right? That means that he has access to all the drugs that the cops impound. So he’s got nearly a limitless supply of meth.
Phoebe: Oh, shit.
Maria: Now that, I like. So, we’ve got this guy, Jim Preston let’s say, an ex-cop, wants to be a strong leader manly football-coach sort but he falls down on it a lot because he’s strung out on speed.
Chris: That’s fucked up.
Phoebe: Awesome.
Damien: Wow...
44
Maria: So, moving on, how many pilots do we want to have? I think we should have three so each of you can have a pilot.
Damien: Should I own a pilot? It’s my first time playing and it sounds a little hard.
Chris: Absolutely! The pilots are the central characters of Bliss Stage, and owning one is a lot of fun. Once you’re a more advanced player, you might want to sit back, but for your first game, absolutely have a pilot.
Maria: Yeah, seriously, Damien, play pilot.
Damien: Okay, but ... maybe I could play a pi-lot who doesn’t really know what’s going on? I’m kinda worried about that level of responsibility.
Maria: Sure! There’s a perfect template for that, called the Innocent Sweetheart. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves... Why don’t we just talk some about the pilots’ backgrounds.
Chris: I think that there should be a pilot who used to be a gang leader, so that we can have some conflict of authority with Jim.
Phoebe: Chris, can I use that idea? It’s close to something I was thinking about already.
Chris: Knock yourself out.
Phoebe: Okay, I’m thinking an older girl -- prob-ably I’ll use the seasoned veteran template -- who was a strong gang leader, owning a lot of the local territory, before she was recruited as
45
a pilot. Some of the other characters are former members of her gang, and there’s tension between the two groups.
Maria: Sounds good. What’s her name?
Phoebe: Oh, I’m horrible with names ... uh ... uh ...
Maria: Anna?
Phoebe: Anna, yeah! Anna Lin.
Maria: So we’re going to cut this short, but Da-mien ends up playing an inexperienced pilot named Sara Smith with the Innocent Sweetheart template, Chris ends up playing the authority figure’s es-tranged son, Josh Preston, with the Eager Young Soldier template, and Phoebe ends up playing Anna with the Seasoned Veteran template.
Maria: Okay, so for anchors I’m going to go with Jenny, Megan, and Nathan. Any objections?
Chris: No.
Damien: I don’t even know why I’d object.
Maria: Normally, we’d rename the anchors af-ter people we had crushes on in high school, but since we’re fictional characters for the example game we don’t actually have them. So we’re going to skip that step. But you, the readers, totally shouldn’t.
Maria: Okay, now we need to come up with some secondary characters. These are just anyone in
46
the group who isn’t a pilot or an anchor or the authority figure.
Phoebe: Anna has a son, he’s two years old, and his name is Archer.
Maria: Okay. Great.
Chris: There should be some members of Anna’s gang, too. Maybe another girl, one of your lieu-tenants?
Maria: Yeah, let’s just give her a name... Laura. But that’s two people with strong relationships to Anna. What about the rest of you?
Damien: I think that there should be some guy who’s an older more experienced romantic interest for Sara.
Chris: Ooh... nice. Let’s call him Keenan, and he’s kind of a player.
Maria: Great. Chris? Anyone for Josh?
Chris: For right now, I feel basically okay. I’m going to have a jacked up relationship with my dad, anyway.
Maria: Point. Okay, now who wants to own what character? I’m the GM, so I can’t have a pilot or an anchor. I’ll take Archer and Keenan, if no one else minds.
Chris: No, I was going to take Keenan, but this way he and Josh can be rivals.
47
Damien: Rivals?
Chris: I’ll take Laura instead. I don’t see Josh as having much to do with her.
Damien: So that’s no one for me?
Maria: Well, you’ve got an anchor, and once you feel more comfortable, we’ll introduce new char-acters.
Damien: Great.
Maria: Speaking of which: ownership over the an-chors.
Chris: I’ll take Nathan.
Damien: I’ll take Jenny.
Phoebe: I guess I’ve got Megan, then.
Maria: Great! We’re almost set. Just have to as-sign your relationships and pick out hopes.
Maria: Hey, people reading this. We’re going to skip over the assigning relationships bit.
48
Picking Out Your HopesThere’s one last piece that we have to talk about. What is
your group fighting for? What sort of future are they going
to shape? These sorts of things are summarized by the
group’s hopes. Hopes are simply a few statements about
the goals and direction of the group. The most impor-
tant thing is that hopes may not be fulfilled until they are
resolved (see pg 153) so, if you have a hope “I hope we win
a decisive battle” then your game cannot contain a decisive
battle until the hope is resolved. The hopes, then, set the
scale of your game, so choose them carefully and don’t
pick something too large or too small.
You should pick a number of hopes equal to the number
of pilot characters, minus one. Here is the list of hopes,
you should pick from it, preferably spreading your hopes
amongst the categories:
Hopes for the winning the warI hope we defeat the alien leader
I hope we win a decisive battle
I hope we can defeat the aliens
I hope that there are other resistance groups
I hope we can organize a unified military front
I hope we develop a super-weapon
I hope we find allies
Hopes for understanding the worldI hope we find out what’s up with the bliss
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
49
I hope we understand the aliens
I hope we can communicate with the aliens
I hope we learn about the dream world
I hope we understand why the aliens attacked us
Hopes for humanity’s futureI hope we can raise a second generation
I hope that there is a place for humanity in the future of
the world
I hope we can get things back they way they were
I hope we can make a better civilization
I hope that we can help the other children in our area
I hope we find a way to wake the sleepers
Other hopesMake up one (and only one) of your own
Try to pick hopes that you care about, because they are
like signposts for what directions your story is going to
take. However, if some hopes turn out not to be such a
great idea, you can change them between engagements if
everyone agrees.
Now you’re done and ready to play! The next two sections
are going to talk a little bit about what each of the num-
bers means, and the general things about how to play,
then we’ll get into the action.
Maria: Okay, just one more bit before we start playing. We need to pick out hopes. A hope is ba-sically a goal that the resistance cell is strug-
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
50
gling for, whether to defeat the aliens, make the world a better place, or anything else like that. We have to pick the hopes off of a list, but we can make up one of our own if we want.
Damien: Okay, I’m confused. Is this stuff like “liberte, fraternite, egalite?”
Chris: Note quite. More specific things. Stuff like “I hope we can understand the Bliss.” Take a look at the book.
Damien: Ah, okay.
Maria: Since we have three pilots, we have two hopes. Any suggestions?
Chris: I’m really grooving on this thing with An-na’s kid. Maybe we could use “I hope we can raise a second generation?”
Phoebe: Great with me. I’d like something milita-ristic, though.
Maria: How about “I hope we can defeat the aliens?” That’s broad and definitely military.
Phoebe: Sounds great.
Maria: Damien, are you okay with these?
Damien: Sure, whatever. I don’t quite get how these work yet, but I’m sure it’ll be okay.
Maria: Great, then we can start playing!
51
Pilot TemplatesOn the next few pages are listed the six pilot templates. As
a player, you just need to pick out a template, assign your
relationships, and play.
52
Innocent Sweetheart
“People say that I’m too young to pilot an ANIMa, but I just
want to do my best... for everyone!”
The Innocent Sweetheart is the youngest pilot, under
trained and inexperienced. She makes up for it with a
heart of gold and an energetic spirit that just won’t quit.
Although most people don’t have a lot of confidence in her
abilities, who can help be catch her infectious enthusiasm?
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
3 2
3 2
2 5
2 4
2 1
1 3
Everyone else 1 2
Special AbilityAdd one Trust to any relationship
Suggested Age: 13
•
53
Eager Young Soldier“You don’t need to worry about me. Those aliens won’t
stand a chance. Bring’em on!”
The Eager Young Soldier is a still a novice ANIMa pilot, but
excited to do his part in the war. A history of fighting for
survival has toughened him, but his determination has
yet to be tested in the dream world. For one so young, his
heart is filled with anger.
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
4 1
3 2
2 3
2 2
2 1
1 4
Everyone else 1 2
Special AbilityAdd one trust or one intimacy to the relationship with
the authority figure.
Suggested Age: 14
•
54
Devoted Lover“Every time I fight... everything I do... I’m thinking of you. I
do it all for you. No one else understands me. If anything
happened to you, I just couldn’t go on.”
A Devoted Lover is a force to be reckoned with on the
battlefield. In the real world, they are deeply tied up in
their love, and in the dream world, they use it as a terrible
weapon. But can a teenage love affair survive the harsh
realities of combat?
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
5 3
3 2
2 3
2 3
2 1
1 3
Everyone else 1 2
Special AbilitiesStarts with a very powerful relationship (already in-
cluded)
Add one stress to any two relationships
Suggested Age: 15
•
•
55
Rising Hero“Every time I go on a mission, everyone acts like I’m so
important because I pilot an ANIMa. But each and every
one of us is important. I’m not a hero. I’m just doing the best
I can.”
The Rising Hero doesn’t know it, but everyone in the group
looks up to her and respects her, not only for the job that
she does, but for the decency and respect with which she
treats others. But since she mostly stays close with a small
group of friends, she doesn’t realize the esteem that they
hold her in.
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
4 2
4 1
3 1
2 2
2 1
1 1
Everyone else 1 3
Special AbilitiesAdd one trust to all relationships with other pilots
More powerful default relationships (already included)
Suggested Age: 16
•
•
56
Carefree Hedonist“Hi there, Sara. Oh, yeah, about last night -- don’t take it
too seriously, okay? I mean, it was fun, but I don’t think we
should let ourselves get too tied down, y’know? Oh, don’t
start crying again...”
The Carefree Hedonist says that he has no regrets. He flits from party to party and lover to lover without so much a second thought for anyone’s feelings. Perhaps he is hurting on the inside, or perhaps he simply realizes that he doesn’t have long to live. Whatever the reason, he is terrifying on the battlefield, but at what cost to his own heart?
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
4 2
4 1
3 2
3 1
3 1
2 2
1 4
Everyone else 1 2
Special AbilitiesAdd one intimacy to any relationship.
Extra starting relationship (already included)
Suggested Age: 16
•
•
57
Seasoned Veteran“I’ve seen better men than you destroyed by worse things
than you can imagine. Don’t think you’re a hero and don’t
think we’re friends.”
The Seasoned Veteran is the oldest pilot. She is bitter and haggard from battle; the scars on her heart and soul may never heal. Her closest relationships have been devastated, and she clings to the few friends she has left with increas-ing desperation. She may talk tough, but inside she is afraid -- of her impending death, or of what might happen if she doesn’t die.
Starting Relationships
Name Intimacy Trust
5 1
4 2
3 3
3 2
3 1
2 4
Everyone else 1 2
Special AbilitiesPick any two relationships and destroy them.
Starts with 1 trauma.
Suggested age: 17
•
•
58
Anchor TemplatesEach anchor is distinguished from the other anchors by
account of her special ability, which allows her to help or
hinder the pilot on his missions. These abilities, with some
default anchor names attached, are listed on the next page.
Don’t use the default anchor names! Anchors should be
named after people you or the other players had unre-
quited crushes on in middle school or high school. Don’t
use the names of people that you still know, though! That’s
just creepy.
Nell is drivenAt her option, after the pilot has placed his dice, she may
reroll one or more die placed in mission.
Nathan is kindAt his option, after the pilot has placed her dice, he may
reroll one or more die placed in nightmare.
Megan is temptestuousAt her option, after the pilot has placed his dice, she may
reroll one or more die placed into her own relationship.
Jenny is savvyAt her option, after the pilot has placed his dice, she may
reroll one or more die placed into someone else’s relation-
ship.
Grace is comforting
59
At her option, after the pilot has placed his dice, she may
reroll one or more die placed into a threatened or endan-
gered category.
Iris is experiencedAt her option, after the pilot has placed his dice, she may
add one stress to her relationship to the pilot to reroll any
one die.
Chapter Summary Before you start, take some time to just hang out.
Pick a player to be the game master (GM). This should
usually be the most experienced player, or the one who
owns the book, or the person who is most excited about
the game.
Your resistance group is located somewhere near
where you are playing. Figure out where. Figure out their
situation.
Figure out other details about your world: what the
aliens look like, other strange effects in the world.
Make up characters: An authority figure, some pilots,
some anchors, some secondary characters. Assign owner-
ship over the characters.
Pick a pilot type for each pilot and assign their starting
relationships.
Pick out a number of hopes equal to your number of
pilots, minus one.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
61
The BasicsThis section covers the very basics of how to play the game
of Bliss Stage: Character ownership, speaking in voice, and
how to handle numerical values for various characters. With
these tools in hand, you should be able to play through the
rest of the game without serious difficulty.
Character OwnershipIn the set-up section, we talked about character ownership.
Any given character is owned by a particular player. Some-
times in this book, we’ll also talk about a player “controlling”
a character, which means exactly the same thing.
62
Ownership is quite simple: during any action, the player
who owns a character makes decisions for the character
and gets say over what that character does and says. Play-
ing is quite simply a matter of stating what the character
does, and sometimes speaking in voice.
Problems can arise when one player owns two characters
both of which are part of an action. If this sort of thing is a
problem, it is no trouble for one character to loan another
character to a different player for the duration of the action.
Loaning a character just gives another player short-term
ownership over that character. In general, however, pilot
characters and the authority figure should not be loaned.
In some situations, it makes sense for ownership of a char-
acter to change hands. This could be because of mechani-
cal restrictions (a character controlled by the GM becomes
a pilot or anchor) or it could be because one players owns
too many characters, or it could be because the character
was lent for one action and everyone liked what the other
player did with it. It is not a problem to transfer ownership
of characters, although it should be avoided in cases of
pilots or the authority figure.
If there are new characters who do not have established
owners, they are considered owned by the GM until they
join the group. Once they join the group, the GM may keep
control or may give the characters to a different player.
63
Speaking in VoiceAt times throughout the book, players will be called to speak in the voice of a character they own. When you are called upon to speak in voice, you must simply say the words that your character says, as if you were a voice-actor reading lines, rather than adding in any sort of removed narration, even in the first person.
The primary time when players speak in voice is the anchor’s player, during a mission action. In this case, the anchor’s descriptions of the environment are understood to actually be the environment that the pilot sees and interacts with. An anchor holds enormous power over the pilot’s perceptions, and can twist the dream in a multitude of different ways.
For most players, during most actions, you can opt to speak in voice but you can also describe your character’s actions at a remove. Most of the time, you will effortlessly slide between the two.
Chapter Summary Owning a character means that you get to decide what
that character says and does.
No one can own more than one pilot. No one should
own more than one anchor. The GM cannot own pilots or
anchors.
Don’t worry! You can pass ownership around if you
want.
When called on to “speak in voice” that just means say
what the character is saying, in the character’s voice.
1)
2)
3)
4)
65
Values Characters and, more importantly, relationships between
characters are assigned certain numerical values during the
play of the game. These values are at the heart of play and
show you what direction things are headed towards.
Pilot’s values measure how close they are to death, both
from the physical and mental strains of piloting and from
exposure to the harmful alien brainwaves that bring about
the Bliss.
The values of relationships measure the strengths of those
relationships and the difficulties that they are presently
facing, whether interpersonal or brought about by damage
within the dream world.
66
A Pilot’s Values: Trauma,
Terror, and BlissPilots have three values which measure their internal state:
Terror, Trauma, and Bliss. All of these values represent dam-
age to the pilot, either from his contact with the dream
world, from events in the waking world, or both.
TraumaTrauma measures the lasting damage -- either physical or
mental -- that the pilot has sustained. Trauma varies from
0 to 6. Trauma is used by the GM to make mission actions
more difficult, and if the pilot ever has more than 6 trauma,
he is killed (see pg 150). Trauma is gained during mission
actions and sometimes during briefing actions, and is
reduced by some interlude actions.
TerrorTerror is a measure of the immediate danger that the pilot
is in during a mission action. In rare circumstances, terror
can also be gained outside of mission actions, in which
case it represents the general danger to the pilot. Terror
varies from 0 to 7. Terror itself has no effect. However, if the
terror value ever is higher than the trauma value, drop ter-
ror to zero and raise trauma by one. Terror is gained during
mission actions and rarely during briefing actions. When
the mission ends, drop the terror value to zero.
BlissBliss is a measure of the pilot’s exposure to the dream
world and the aliens. It is gained primarily during mission
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actions, but also when a pilot’s relationships are destroyed.
Bliss varies from 13 to 108. Bliss never goes down, it only
goes up. When bliss passes 108, the pilot can no longer be
a pilot, and must die or leave the group. (see pg 152)
A Relationship’s Values:
Intimacy, Trust, and StressThe most important values in Bliss Stage aren’t attached to
any character at all. Rather, they belong to the relationships
between characters, and they measure the strengths and
challenges of those relationships. Initially, only the pilots’
relationships will have values. Over the course of play,
however, relationships between non-pilot characters may
be developed. The values for relationships are Intimacy,
Trust and Stress.
Relationships are always reciprocal. If Sara has a 4 intimacy,
2 trust, 1 stress relationship with Keenan, Keenan’s relation-
ship with Sara is identical. The best way to think of this is to
think of the relationship as a thing which exists on its own,
external to the two characters.
If a relationship’s Trust score drops to zero, the relationship
is destroyed. Destroyed relationships effectively have a zero
value for both intimacy and trust, and may not be used
in missions. When a relationship is destroyed, any pilot
involved in the relationship gains Bliss equal to three times
the intimacy of that relationship.
Chris: The only time a broken relationship can be used during a mission is when the pilot has a
68
broken relationship with his anchor. This is se-riously bad news. For more about how this works, see page 107 in the Mission Actions chapter.
Intimacy
Intimacy measures the amount of physical and emotional
closeness in the relationship. Intimacy varies from 1 to 5.
The intimacy value of a relationship gives the pilot power
in mission actions, and is gained during some interlude
actions. Intimacy never goes down, it only goes up. When
it reaches five, it can’t increase any more. A relationship’s
intimacy implies that the characters have done a certain
amount of intimate actions, but a low intimacy does not
imply that they have not. The required actions are a mini-
mum, not a maximum.
Phoebe: So, for example, there could be two char-acters who have had sex, but still only have a one intimacy. Perhaps they just met somewhere and hooked up, and have no other relationship.
Characters with a direct blood relationship have an ad-
ditional point of intimacy above and beyond what is listed
above. They still have a maximum total intimacy of 5 (you
are not rewarded for incest.)
TrustTrust measures the durability of the relationship in the face
of hardship. Trust varies from 1 to 5. The trust value of a
relationship lets the relationship last in the face of damage
during mission actions and also betrayals during actions in
the waking world. Trust goes up in some interlude actions,
although never above 5. If a relationship’s trust reaches
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Intimacy Levels Chart
Intimacy Level Name Required Action
One Names and Eyes Exchange Names
Make Eye Contact
••
Two Hands and Mouths Physical contact
Involved
conversation
Sing together
Work on a project
together
Share food together
••
••
•
Three Touch and Mess Affectionate
physical contact
Personal
conversation
Make food together
Get drunk together
Get into a fight
•
•
•••
Four Blood and Spit Kiss
Touch Sexually
See each other
naked
Exchange blood
Physically fight for
real
•••
••
Five Sex Have sex•
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zero, the relationship is destroyed. A destroyed relationship
cannot be used in missions. A destroyed relationship gives
any pilot involved three times the relationship’s intimacy
value in bliss.
StressStress measures the immediate problems with the relation-
ship, and how close it is to suffering permanent damage.
Stress varies from 0 to 6. The stress value of a relationship
represents the damage that the relationship has taken, par-
ticularly during mission actions. Stress goes down in some
interlude actions. If stress is ever higher than trust, stress
drops to zero and trust decreases by one.
Non-Pilots: Harm and Death
A pilot’s death is dictated by his trauma and bliss values,
but other characters’ deaths are not so stringently dic-
tated. However, there is a way that other characters can
be brought closer to death without actually killing them:
Harm. Harm represents that this character has been seri-
ously damaged in some way.
A character may be harmed in a number of ways. A
character’s harm can come as the result of a failed mission
goal, as a result of broken relationships, or directly from the
actions of another character.
The first time a non-pilot character’s relationship is de-
stroyed, they are harmed. If all their relationships are
destroyed, they are killed.
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There are no mechanical limitations on a character who is
harmed. However, if they are ever harmed again, they are
killed.
When a character dies, none of their relationships have
value. They are useless for missions. Also, whenever a
character dies, all pilots gain bliss equal to three times the
intimacy value of their relationship with the dead character,
just as if the relationship was broken.
Chapter Summary Values are numbers assigned to characters are relation-
ships between characters during the game of Bliss Stage.
Pilot’s values measure the amount of damage they
have sustained from their missions, in terms of actual
harm and exposure to the dream world. These values are
terror, trauma, and bliss.
Relationship’s values measure the strengths of the
relationship as well as its present condition. These values
are intimacy, trust, and stress.
Non pilots do not have any values. However, they may
be harmed or killed in various ways. Any character who is
harmed that suffers harm again is killed.
1)
2)
3)
4)
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ActionsA campaign of Bliss Stage a series of short units of play,
called actions. An action is roughly equivalent to a scene in
a movie or TV show, or a short chapter of a manga. During
an action, some players will portray the fictional characters
that you developed during your set-up, some players will
portray aliens and other threats, some players will control
the environment, and other players will simply watch the
action unfolding and offer their opinion of it. Taking part
in actions and watching them is the core joy of a game of
Bliss Stage, because as you move from action to action, you
will be making interesting stories about the characters you
have dreamt up.
Damien: Short? How short?
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Phoebe: Generally, they should be between 2-5 minutes long. The longer actions can take up to ten minutes.
Chris: Another way to think about it is that an action is just enough time for one important thing to happen.
The Common Structure of
ActionsDuring a game of Bliss Stage, several different types of
actions will be performed. Each type of action has its
own particular rules and concerns, but they share a basic
common structure. What follows is a brief overview of this
structure structure.
In every action One player calls for an action
The players involved in the action initiate that action
The players involved play out the action, controlling the
characters performing the action, the environment that it
takes place in, and any consequences of this action.
The action is called to a close, and the mechanical ef-
fects of the action are recorded.
Based on this or another previous action, a player calls
for a new action.
An Bliss Stage engagement is just stringing actions to-
gether like this, one after another, until your engagement
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
75
is over. A Bliss Stage campaign is simply enough of these
engagements that the story gets its mechanical end.
Types of ActionsThere are two common types of actions in a game of Bliss
Stage: mission actions and interlude actions. There are also
several other types of actions, including briefing actions,
final actions, resolution actions, and so on. The following
several chapters are going to talk specifically about each
type of action in turn, going into exact detail about how to
perform each type of action and the specific rules in each
case, but right now let’s just talk briefly about each type of
action.
Mission ActionsMission actions take place when a pilot character is hooked
into an ANIMa and an anchor is guiding him through the
dream world. The anchor calls for mission actions, although
in general they follow one after another in sequence until
the mission is over. During mission actions, the anchor’s
player controls the environment and guides the pilot’s
actions, the pilot’s player controls the pilot, and the GM
and other players control the aliens, nightmares, and other
hostile elements of the dream world. Mission actions
reach a climax either when the pilot is endangered, has
an opportunity to complete a mission objective, or both.
After the resolution of the climax, the action is brought to a
close, often segueing directly into another mission action
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Example mission actionsFighting an alien warrior in single combat.
Clearing a path to the alien outpost.
Gathering information on the aliens’ activities.
Preventing aliens from reaching your headquarters.
Traversing a dangerous and unstable part of the dream-
world.
Swept undersea by a giant wave, where does the pilot
end up?
Interlude ActionsInterlude actions take place in the real world, when the
characters involved are not actively on a mission. The GM
or another player with the privilege can call for an interlude
action, and the action is initiated by the players who con-
trol the characters involved in the action. One player who
is not otherwise involved will judge the outcome of the
action. During interlude actions, the characters involved
interact socially, and their controlling players try to show or
develop some aspect of their relationship. Interlude actions
are closed when the judge calls them closed. Sometimes,
when an interlude results in broken trust, another interlude
action is played out as a follow-up.
Example interlude actionsThe end of the big date. Will it be her first kiss?
Hanging out together on the roof, talking about the
world.
He’s crying alone in the back of the library. Will someone
comfort him?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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He’s confronting the guy who slept with his girlfriend.
Will there be a fight?
They just keep yelling at each other, night after night. Is
this the fight that will break them up?
Making a big dinner for everyone to share.
Scavenging amidst the wreckage of the city, how will
they survive an attack by a roving gang of other children?
Fallout Actions
Fallout actions are a special type of interlude action, called
for by the player of a character who caused broken trust in
a prior interlude action, but otherwise identical to a normal
interlude.
Briefing ActionsBriefing actions serve as an introduction to missions. Dur-
ing a briefing action, one character (usually the authority
figure) goes over an outline of the mission goals and objec-
tives, as well as any special conditions that apply. A pilot
and an anchor are chosen for the mission, either by the au-
thority figure or because someone volunteers. When a pilot
and anchor are selected, and the mission goals have been
made clear, the action is closed with the anchor describing
to the pilot how she preps for him for the mission.
Example briefing actions“We need a volunteer to make a direct run at the enemy
base, doing as much damage as possible and creating a
diversion.”
•
•
•
•
•
78
“Keenan, you’ll be scouting the local area for signs of
alien activity.”
“We’ll be performing an experiment to try to determine
the nature of Faith’s visions. Angela, you’ll be keeping
watch over her while she sleeps.”
“The base is under attack! Scramble every available
ANIMa immediately!”
Breakdown ActionsBreakdown actions serve to demonstrate the end of a
relationship. They are called for by either member of the
broken relationship, and initiated by the same. A break-
down action is played much like an interlude, but it has no
mechanical effects and thus no judge. It closes when the
participants are done.
Example breakdown actions“I’m leaving!” “You can’t leave me, I’m leaving you!”
At the end, there’s nothing left to say.
“Remember when we were friends?” “No, fucker, we
were never friends.”
Final ActionsFinal actions serve to demonstrate the end of a pilot’s ca-
reer as a pilot, and quite possibly the end of that pilot’s life.
They are triggered by a pilot getting over 108 bliss or over
6 trauma. During a final action, the pilot’s player has final
say over everything that happens. Final actions over-ride
the usual structure of missions and interludes.
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Resolution ActionsResolution actions are used to resolve one of the game’s
hopes. They are triggered when a pilot surpasses 108 bliss,
after his final action, or when there is only one pilot remain-
ing. Like in a final action, the pilot has final control of the
contents and events of a resolution action, within certain
limitations.
Example final and resolution actionsOutnumbered on all sides, he sacrifices himself to give
her a chance to escape.
The enemy ace gets off a lucky shot, and she’s flatlined
before she can react.
His sacrifice provides a diversion for the caravan to get
through.
Deep inside the alien base, he merges with the alien
hive mind and gains true understanding.
There are deeper truths about the dream than what we
imagined: it is humanity’s crucible, by which they will be
made perfect.
Floating alone in the void, he looks out at the stars and
realizes that all of them are squirming with alien life.
Though we defeated this army, a million more will follow.
Holding a child in her arms, she sets off for the hills, for
an unknown fate.
20 years later, assassins find him and execute him for his
war crimes.
Chris: All right, that’s enough of that! In the next few chapters, we’re going to be going over each type of action in detail.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Maria: While we’re doing that, keep in mind that playing Bliss Stage is just a question string-ing together these actions together, one after another, like a string of beads.
Chapter Summary The game of Bliss Stage is made up of a series of ac-
tions.
Actions come in different types, but share a similar
underlying structure.
The most common types of actions are mission actions
and interlude actions.
Other types of actions are briefing actions, fallout ac-
tions, breakdown actions, final actions, and resolution
actions.
1)
2)
3)
4)
83
The First ActionMaria: The first action of your game is a brief-ing action. The general rules for briefing ac-tions will come later on in the book. For right now we’re just going to go over how to set up the first action of your game. This chapter will cover how to do it, step by step.
Chris: If you’ve played the game a couple of times and have your feet under you, you might want to try a different first action, like start-ing off with an interlude action or having a dif-ferent first mission. This time, though, don’t try changing things around.
84
Outline of the First Action of
the Game
The first action of the game is always very much the same.
Follow this structure closely.
The GM starts the game by describing the beginning
of the briefing action. She should describe all the pilots
and anchors together, where they’ve been called by the
authority figure.
The GM should speak in the voice of the authority fig-
ure, who should announce that a group of alien remotes
have been spotted approaching the group’s headquar-
ters. He should specify that all pilots will be needed for
this mission, and that they should suit up as soon as
possible. Assign anchors based on which anchors have
the strongest relationships with which pilots.
The authority figure should say that each pilot, in turn,
will take on a part of this mission. Each pilot has two
mission objectives: “Prevent alien from reaching the base”
and “Defeat enemy pilot.” The GM should explain that fail-
ing either of these will result in harm to one character of
the GM’s choice.
Choosing one pilot to start, close the action by having
the appropriate describe prepping the pilot for ANIMa
use, and then move on to the mission actions.
After the mission is finished, every player gets a privi-
leged interlude action if they want it. From there, move
on into more interlude actions or another briefing action.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
85
Once you’ve set up the action and played it to completion,
move to the next section to see how to play out a mission
action.
Maria: Okay, so you’re all in the base, doing what it is you would normally do on a day that you have free time. Suddenly, the klaxons start blaring. In the areas where you’ve set up flashing emergency lights, the emergency lights are flash-ing. The base is under attack.
As you run to Jim’s office, which is down on the first floor where the super has an office right now, he’s outside screaming “This is not a drill! This is not a drill!” at the top of his lungs.
“We’re under attack” he screams. “Since we only have one ANIMa rig functioning, you need to spell each other. Josh, I need you suited up and ready to go right away. Anna, you’re next, Sara, you’re last. Jenny and Megan are already near the crech-es set up to anchor you.”
Okay, guys. The mission goals for each of you here are “Prevent the aliens from reaching the base” and “Defeat an enemy pilot.” If you fail either of these, your perimeter is breached and someone will be harmed. If you want to hotshot, you could also take other people’s targets. Ev-erything clear?
Damien: Uh, not exactly ...
Chris: I’m up first, so why don’t you watch me and Phoebe do it and ask us afterward if you still can’t see how it works?
86
Damine: Sure, okay.
Chris: So I’m tearing off my clothes as I run down into the ANIMa creches, trying to change into my pilot’s suit as quickly as I can.
Phoebe: Megan is totally waiting for you right at the bottom of the stairs, holding out a suit. “Good luck!” she manages to belt out before you jump into the tank.
Chris: “Roger that!”
Phoebe: I’m testing the radio. “Testing. Testing. Josh can you hear me?”
Maria: Great. Let’s move into the mission action.
Chapter Summary The first action of the game is always the same.
It is a briefing action.
The assigned mission is for all pilots, to stop the inva-
sion of the base.
Once this mission is done, move into interlude actions
or another briefing, whichever you like.
1)
2)
3)
4)
87
89
Mission ActionsMission actions take place largely inside the dream world,
featuring a pilot inside his ANIMa attempting to accom-
plish something in the dream world, while being guided
through the dream by an anchor and challenged by aliens,
nightmares, and his own doubts and fears. In the real
world, the pilot is half-asleep, put into the trance by the
ANIMa technology.
During a mission action, the pilot may succeed or fail at
his goals, and the pilot or any of his relationships might be
damaged. The dream world may also be transformed and
reshaped.
90
During a mission action, the anchor’s player will guide the
pilot’s player step-by-step through the mission, using her
character’s voice the entire time. Meanwhile, the pilot’s
player will talk back and forth with the anchor using the
pilot’s voice, and also describe the pilot’s actions to the
group at large. The GM and other players describe the pres-
ence and actions of the aliens, local nightmares, and other
hostile dream elements. The GM additionally has a role
providing difficulty for traumatized pilots.
Mission actions are usually taken strung together back-to-
back, as a series. One such series of mission actions (one
trip to the dream world) is sometimes called “a mission,”
so when you read that know that it just means “a series of
mission actions.”
Calling for a Mission ActionSince mission generally immediately and naturally follow
from either a briefing action or a previous mission action,
there is not often a need to call for a mission action specifi-
cally. It simply naturally follows from the first part.
There are two exceptions to this. First, if a pilot is hotshot-
ting (see below), he is in effect calling for a new mission
action, either by telling the anchor in character voice what
he’s going to try to do or by describing his actions and
what he wants to accomplish with them to the group at
large. Second, if there is a break in the middle of a mission,
the GM, pilot, or anchor can call for a return to the mission
at any time that another action isn’t going on.
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Initiating a Mission ActionFor the first mission action in a mission, the anchor’s
player, using the anchor’s voice, describes the initial dream
environment that the pilot sees around him. The pilot’s
character then describes the pilot creating his ANIMa, and
the relationships that he uses to do so, starting with the
pilot’s relationship to his anchor, which forms the basic
humanoid chassis, then adding on additional parts made
from additional relationships. Each relationship usually has
a single form that it takes, which does not change from
mission to mission. Relationships, once integrated, may not
be “sent away” or disincorporated until the end of the mis-
sion or until they suffer malfunction.
Then, the anchor, still using character voice, describes the
mission objective that the pilot will be trying with this ac-
tion.
For later mission actions, who-ever has control over the
dream (either the anchor or the other players) describes
the dream environment that the pilot finds himself in. Then
the anchor tells the pilot what the next objective will be,
and starts guiding him towards it.
Playing out a Mission ActionIn the simplest case, where the anchor has retained
complete control over the dream, a mission action plays
out quite simply. The anchor describes and explains the
contents of the dream world, guiding the pilot from place
to place, while the pilot responds to the anchor either in
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character voice or by describing his actions. If there are any
aliens, nightmares, or other dangers present the GM and
the rest of the players describe them.
Phoebe: If you like, as an anchor, you can ask the pilot questions about what he sees, notices, or detects. Like this “I’m getting strange sig-nals... there’s something in front of you! What is it?” I like to do this, because it lets the pilot’s player take control over the course of the action.
If, in the consequences of the last mission action, the
anchor partially lost control over the dream, the process is
largely as described above, except that the GM and other
players have license to interject alien or nightmarish ele-
ments into the anchor’s descriptions, or to alter them to
make them more dangerous. In very real ways, the anchor
can be be wrong about the dreamworld.
If, in the consequences of the last mission action, the an-
chor totally lost control of the dream, the anchor may not
describe the elements of the dreamworld at all, and indeed
may only speak at the discretion of the GM and other play-
ers. Instead, the GM and other players tell the pilot what he
is seeing and experiencing, which is usually horrible and
nightmarish. The pilot says how he reacts.
Adding to the ANIMaDuring the whole course of this, if the pilot wishes to add
parts to his ANIMa, he does so simply be describing the
relationship and the part that it forms. The pilot may add
any part which is not presently in use, or did not suffer a
malfunction earlier in the mission.
93
Cancelling the MissionIf the anchor has not totally lost control of the dream,
the anchor may cancel the mission at any time before
it reaches climax. To do this, the anchor simply says that
she is cancelling the mission, and describes the means by
which she wakes the pilot form his dream.
Reaching ClimaxWhen the anchor has brought things to a point where the
pilot is in serious danger, the pilot could achieve a mission
objective, or both, the mission action has reached a climax.
If the anchor has no control, the climax is simply the first
time that the pilot is in serious danger or could complete a
mission obective. Move on to the next section.
Phoebe (as Megan): Testing, testing. Josh can you hear me?
Chris (as Josh): Loud and clear.
Phoebe: Okay, good. Now, I want you to open your eyes, really slowly, like there’s lead weights attached to them. When you open your eyes you’re going to see the outside of the base, but with the blurring and the shifting that we’ve seen in the practice runs. Are you with me?
Chris: Yes. I’m going to form my ANIMa now.
Phoebe: Good. Do that.
Chris (addressing the other players): Megan’s chassis is bright red, with big shoulder pads and flames painted on it. I’m also going to bring in
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Sara, who’s a jetback unit, and ... let’s see ... my dad, who’s a great big gun. That’s 10 total intimacy.
Phoebe: Okay, let’s go.
Chris: I’m jetpacking towards the aliens, shout-ing “Die, fuckers” and blasting away at them with my gun. Let’s roll.
In a later mission, Josh (played by Chris) is at-tempting to cross the Bay Bridge. Megan (played by Phoebe) is anchoring. In the last action, she lost partial control of the dream, so the other players (Maria and Damien) can add in nightmarish elements.
Phoebe: Can you still hear me?
Chris: Loud and clear.
Phoebe: Good. Now I want you to head towards the bridge.
Chris: Right. I’m heading there now.
Phoebe: The bridge is basically like it is now...
Maria (cutting in): The bridge is on fire.
Chris: Uh, Megan, I can’t cross the bridge.
Phoebe: All readings are nominal, Josh. Don’t chicken out.
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Chris: Don’t chicken out?! The bridge is on fire!
Damien: The fire’s getting hotter.
Phoebe: Look, just cross the bridge!
Chris: Okay, I’m going to try to jetpack over it.
Maria: Sounds like a climax. Chris, get your dice.
Phoebe: No, wait! I’m getting abnormal readings here, Josh. I’m pulling the plug.
Chris: Crap.
Maria: Okay, that’s the end of the mission.
In the next action, Josh has crossed the bridge, but Megan has totally lost control of the dream and it has descended into nightmare.
Maria: As soon as you step off the bridge, your radio cuts out. Phoebe, Megan can’t talk anymore. All you’re getting is static.
Chris: Megan? Megan? This is Beta to base. This is Beta to base. Come in Base!
Damien: The soil that you’re stepping on is made of tiny faceless people.
Chris: Oh shit... I look away.
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Maria: You look up and you see this huge person leaning above you, made out of other faceless people, of course. But this one has a face. It’s calling to you in some language you can’t under-stand.
Damien: It has a hole in it: right here. (taps his heart.)
Chris: Oh, man, I am definitely getting away.
Maria: It’s grabbing for you. Looks like this is the climax.
The Climax of a Mission ActionAt the climax of the mission action, we roll dice to deter-
mine whether the pilot has succeeded in his mission goal,
and what damage he and his ANIMa sustain in the process.
The pilot will roll a number of dice, and from those pick
dice that govern his success in his mission, his personal
safety, and the safety of his relationships.
First, the pilot picks up a number of dice equal to the total
intimacy of all the relationships that make up his ANIMa.
Chris: You can use either ordinary dice or spe-cial dice called Fudge dice which have two sides that read “-,” two sides that read “+,” and two sides that are blank.
97
Trauma and ThreateningIf the pilot is traumatized, the GM then uses the pilot’s
trauma to make the mission more difficult. As a default, the
GM may threaten a category (mission success, pilot safety,
or single relationship) for each point of trauma that the
pilot has. When picking dice for a threatened category, the
pilot must pick two, and only read the lowest value. When
threatening categories, the GM must say, briefly, why those
categories are particularly threatened.
By forgoing threatening two categories, the GM may
instead force a relationship. The GM picks a relationship not
presently active. The pilot must also pick a die for the safety
of that relationship, as if it were a part of his ANIMa. At his
option, the pilot may incorporate this relationship into his
ANIMa, thus gaining the dice for it.
By forgoing threatening three categories, the GM may
instead endanger a category. The GM picks one category.
The pilot must select three dice for this category, and read
only the lowest one.
If the pilot has three or more trauma, the GM may forgo all
threatening or other use of trauma to cause total panic. All
“0” results that the pilot rolls are discarded, and a single “+”
result is added to his roll.
After the GM has used the pilot’s trauma against him, the
pilot rolls all his dice. From those dice, he picks out one
die (or two or three, as defined by his trauma) for each
category and places it on that category on his pilot record
sheet. Once he has placed all his dice (which might take
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time) the consequences of the mission action should be
established and recorded.
If the pilot does not have enough dice to fill every catego-
ry, every category he does not pick a die for is considered
a “-.”
Chris: If you want to speed this up, do it this way...
First, figure out how many dice you will need to place. This is usually the number of relation-ships that you’ve brought in plus your trauma plus two. If the GM chose to endanger a category or force a relationship, that’s one less die. If the GM chose to cause panic, ignore your trauma.
Second, split the dice into pluses, blanks, and minuses.
Third, take as many pluses as you have. Is that enough to fill all your categories? If it isn’t, fill the rest with blanks. If that isn’t enough, place minuses.
The Consequences of a
Mission ActionThe consequences of the mission action are determined by
what dice the pilot picked for into what categories. Consult
the charts below. For “Die” simply look at the value of the
die that the pilot picked for that category. If there is more
than one die, read only the lowest.
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Mission Success
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) Success! The pilot successfully com-
pletes the mission goal.
0 (3-4) The mission moves alone. The pilot
does not complete the goal now,
but may try again.
- (1-2) This mission goal is stalled. The pilot
may not complete the goal in the
next roll (read all + results in mission
success as 0 results). At the pilot’s
option, the mission goal is simply
failed.
Pilot’s Safety
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) The pilot stays safe. The anchor
retains control over the dream.
0 (3-4) The pilot’s safety is jeopardized. The
pilot gains one terror. The anchor
loses some control of the dream: the
GM and other players may introduce
nightmarish or alien elements.
- (1-2) The pilot’s safety is abandoned. The
pilot gains one trauma and one ter-
ror. The anchor loses control of the
dream entirely.
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Relationship’s SafetyEach relationship has it’s own category, and the pilot must
pick a die for each of them (more if the relationship is
threatened or endangered.)
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) Relationship is unharmed. ANIMa
part functions perfectly.
0 (3-4) Relationship gains one stress. ANIMa
part is damaged by attack or over-
use.
- (1-2) Relationship suffers malfunction,
gaining one stress and loosing one
trust. ANIMa part is rendered useless
or destroyed utterly. If it is not the
anchor’s relationship, this relation-
ship is no longer part of the pilot’s
ANIMa. It gives no dice, does not
require the pilot to place a die, and
may not be called back for the dura-
tion of the mission.
Pilot’s BlissAll dice which are not placed into a category are used to
count how much bliss the pilot gains from this mission ac-
tion. Consult the table below for every die not used.
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) Pilot gains three bliss.
0 (3-4) Pilot gains no bliss.
- (1-2) Pilot gains one bliss.
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After the pilot has placed his dice, read their results on
these charts and record the consequences. Check to see if
any relationships have stress higher than trust. Those rela-
tionships should lose trust and drop stress to zero. Check to
see if the pilot has more terror than trauma. If he does, raise
trauma by one and drop terror to zero.
If there were additional consequences to success or failure
for the mission goal, these take effect immediately. If the
group at large feels that there ought to be additional con-
sequences for succeeding or failing at the present mission
goal, they may discuss it and, if they can agree on any such
effects, should note them down.
On the mission sheet, note whether the goal succeeded or
failed.
Maria: For more about additional consequences to mission goals, see page 141. If the group agrees to any additional consequences on the fly, they must conform to the guidelines set out on page 141.
Drawing from our first example action, Josh (played by Chris) is charging the aliens. He has three relationships active (Sara, Megan, and his father Jim) with a total intimacy of 10. He rolls 10 dice, with a result of:
+, +, 0, 0, 0, 0, -, =, =, =
Chris: Wow. Bad roll.
Phoebe: Oh, it’s not that bad. You can deal.
102
Chris: Right. Okay. I’m going to put a plus into mission (moves it) and a plus into my relation-ship with Sara (moves it). I guess that leaves zeroes in nightmare and my other two relation-ships. (marks down stress in his relationships with Megan and Jim.)
Phoebe: And one terror rolls over into one trauma (marks it down on the mission sheet.) And those four unassigned minuses are four bliss (marks that down.)
Maria: Okay, so you cruise in, guns blazing, blowing up aliens right and left, and generally routing the group troops. They’re screeching and boiling away into tiny little people.
Chris: Take that! And that!
Phoebe: Josh, calm down and focus on the mission for once!
Chris: Hah! Look at’em run.
Maria: Yeah, you route them. There are tiny people clinging to your gun and your visor, mind-lessly screaming at you.
Chris: Aw, man... I wipe them off in disgust.
Damien: Eww...
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Closing a Mission Action
and Bridging to Another
Mission ActionAfter you’ve identified the consequences of the climax,
close the mission action by playing out the climax. During
this time, the pilot’s player says what the pilot does to try
to accomplish the mission objective and protect himself,
the GM and other players say that the aliens and other
nightmarish things do to try to stop him or get in his way,
and the anchor’s player offers advice to the pilot in her
character’s voice. You know how it’s going to work out, so
play towards that.
When you’ve finished that, you’re done with that mission
action. If there’s more mission goals left, move directly into
a new mission action. If that was the last mission goal, the
mission ends, and the anchor’s player describes waking up
the pilot.
Maria: If a mission for one pilot is really long, you might want to take a break in the middle to do an interlude action for other characters. That’s okay.
Drawing from our third example action, Josh is fleeing from a giant heartless alien that is try-ing to swallow him up. The only remaining mission objective is to infiltrate the enemy base. Josh’s anima is presently made up of his relationship with Megan, his relationship with Anna, his re-lationship with Laura and his relationship with Nathan for a total intimacy of 11.
104
Maria: Okay, you’ve got four trauma. I’m going to use that to threaten mission, nightmare, your relationship with Megan, and your relationship with Nathan.
Chris: Oof, that’s mean.
He rolls 11 dice with a result of:
+, +, +, 0, 0, 0, 0, -, -, =, =
Chris: Of all the luck! I’m putting two plusses into Mission, because this needs to end now. I’ll put a plus and a blank into nightmare, because I can soak the terror. Blanks for both Anna and Lauren. A blank and a minus for Megan, and two minuses for Nathan. Damn, that’s rough. At least I didn’t take much bliss.
Phoebe: Okay, I’m using my special ability to re-roll one die in our relationship. (rerolls the minus). I got a plus! Well, we can take the stress.
Chris: Okay, so my relationship with Nathan was at one stress and two trust. With the dropped trust and extra stress, it’s broken. Since we had two intimacy, that gets me four bliss. Looks like I drop down to two trust with Laura, too. Every-one else is just stress.
Phoebe: No point in recording the Terror. That’s five total bliss for this action?
Chris: Right.
105
Maria: Okay, so you’re flying away and he grabs you and starts pulling you towards him. You can see all sorts of squirming, murmuring little alien people crawling out of his heart.
Chris: Oh, shit. I blast at them.
Damien: They seem to suck it up. No effect.
Phoebe (as Megan): Okay, Josh, I get it! The alien that’s chasing you? That’s the base! I want you to get inside that hole.
Chris (as Josh): The hell? Okay, whatever you say.
Damien: I think as your going in the fins on your back get torn off you. Bye-bye, Nathan.
Chris: Right. I’m just going to climb up.
Maria: The little alien poeple that make it up squish and scream in your hands.
Chris: Ugh... this is getting old.
Maria: Finally, you make it to the top. You’re here in the alien base, but you can’t understand anything that’s going on. People are flowing in and out like blood, each one squealing in a dif-ferent note...
Chris: Okay, I’m going to hot-shot a new goal: Figure out how the aliens communicate.
106
(For rules on hot-shotting, see the “special con-siderations” section of this chapter)
All: Again?!
Phoebe (as Megan): Josh! Josh! You can’t stay there! We’ve got to wake you up now!
Chris: Just hold on a second. I’m getting some-thing.
Phoebe: God-damnit, Josh, I’m getting something, too. I’m getting some meter readings off the charts!
Chris: I’m digging around in the arteries, trying to figure out the sound.
Maria: All these little people are pouring over you, you can’t see, they’re grabbing you, scream-ing, screaming... and I think we’re at climax again.
Special Considerations for
Mission Actions
HotshottingAt any time during a mission, the pilot may declare his own
mission goals and set off to achieve them, either by telling
the anchor in character voice what he’s going to try to do
or by describing his actions and what he wants to accom-
plish with them to the group at large. In effect, the pilot is
calling for a new mission action with a mission goal of his
107
own authorship. Extra consequences for these goals (see
pg 141) are up the group at large.
Hotshotting cannot obviate the ordinary mission goals.
When a pilot declares that he is hotshotting, the next mis-
sion action addresses his new mission goal. The anchor
may cancel the mission to stop him, but may not require
the pilot to perform other actions first.
A Broken Relationship with the AnchorIf the pilot has a broken relationship with his anchor, things
are very bad indeed. The anchor’s very life is now at risk!
Add a new category for dice in the climax: Anchor’s Safety.
Anchor’s Safety
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) Anchor is fine.
0 (3-4) Feedback. The anchor is harmed. Ele-
ments of the dream leak into reality.
- (1-2) Backlash. The anchor is killed. Inhab-
itants of the dream enter reality.
Id dice and having no ANIMaIf the pilot has no relationships at all to compose his
ANIMa, he is abandoned naked to the dream world. This is
very dangerous!
Since the pilot has no dice to roll from intimacy, he instead
rolls Id dice. The pilot may roll a number of Id dice up to
four times their Trauma score.
108
The pilot must pick dice for only three categories: Mission
Success, Pilot’s Safety, and Anchor’s Safety. The GM uses
trauma as normal.
All dice rolled, not just unassigned dice, give Bliss. Unas-
signed “0” dice give one terror.
FlashbacksIf an unlucky pilot places a “-” in both the mission category
and his own safety, he may call for a flashback. A flashback
is a special, privileged interlude action. If the flashback re-
sults in intimacy building for a relationship which does not
right now form part of of his ANIMa, and the pilot brings in
that relationship as part of his ANIMa immediately, the pilot
may choose to read the “-” in the mission category as a “0.”
Even if trust is broken, there can be no fallout actions from
flashbacks.
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Chapter Summary Mission actions are when the pilots enter the dream
world, form their ANIMa, and fight aliens. They are led
and monitored by an anchor.
Most mission actions are automatically called for.
To open a mission action, the anchor describes the
pilot’s immediate surroundings and situation. If it is the
first action, the pilot then forms his ANIMa. If the anchor
has lost control of the dream, the GM and other players
may contribute to the description.
When the pilot is either in danger or might accomplish
a mission objective, the action has reached a climax.
Before this, the anchor may cancel the mission if she has
control.
At the climax, the pilot takes up dice equal to the total
intimacy of all relationships in his ANIMa.
The GM can use the pilot’s Trauma to make this roll
more difficult in a muber of ways.
The pilot then rolls dice and choose which dice to use
for the categories of mission success, pilot’s safety, and
relationship safety for each relationship.
The players involved describe the outcome, and bridge
to another mission action.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
111
Interlude ActionsAny action that takes place outside of the immediate con-
text of missions and fighting aliens is probably going to be
an interlude action. The goal of an interlude is to highlight,
discover, or develop the relationships amongst the charac-
ters, particularly the pilots.
In the course of an interlude action, a relationship will be
tested and transformed. In addition, trust may be broken,
there may be harm and injury, and other important events
may transpire. In general, interludes are beneficial for rela-
tionships, counteracting the stress and damage that they
sustain during mission actions.
112
During an interlude, some players will control characters
that they own, telling everyone what these characters say
and do. The GM will additionally control the environment
and surroundings, and one player will be chosen to make a
judgement on the mechanical outcome of the action.
Interludes usually take place between missions, jumping
between different sets of characters to see what they’re
up to. Sometimes, if there is a break in trust, there can be a
series of actions that follows the aftermath of the broken
trust within the resistance group.
Calling for an Interlude ActionThe GM may call for an interlude action at any time except
during another action. Generally, interludes occur between
missions, but in some circumstances interludes can be
played during a mission. Additionally, there are certain
situations where a player is given the privilege of calling for
an interlude action. Most commonly, the last player who
went out on a mission has the privilege of calling for an
interlude.
Chris: In case you were wondering, here are all the ways that a player can get the privilege to call for an interlude action: Completing a mis-sion successfully, a flashback (pg 108), a fol-low-up action from broken trust (pg 122), or a denouement at the end of a relationship (pg 123).
If the GM calls for an interlude action, she simply says
which characters are involved in the action. At least one
113
pilot must be present. The players who control those char-
acters then decide where and how the characters meet.
Non-GM players are also sometimes given a privileged
interlude action. Most commonly this is because their pilot
has completed a mission. This privilege allows them to call
for an interlude action on their own. This action must in-
clude their pilot, but all other characters are only included
at the player’s option. After they have named the partici-
pants, the players who control those characters decide
where and how their characters meet. The pilot’s player
must use this privilege before another mission is started.
In other cases when a non-GM player gets the privilege
of calling for an interlude, it must be used immediately or
it is lost. The specific rules for each are explained where
apprioriate.
Selecting a Judge and
Initiating an Interlude
ActionOnce a player has called for an interlude, the first thing you
should do is select a judge for the Interlude. The judge is a
player set aside to make a judgement on the mechanical
outcome of the interlude action. Usually, the judge should
be the last player who benefitted from an interlude. In
times where this is unclear, the GM should judge or pick
a judge. Under no circumstances should the judge be
the same player who called for the action, and under no
114
circumstances should the judge control a character during
the interlude action.
Before the action starts, the Judge should look at the char-
acters’ record sheets and discuss the possible outcomes of
the action.
Chris: For more on the restrictions to outcomes of interludes, see pgs 108-109.
Once all this is set, the players involved in the interlude
action briefly discuss under what circumstances their char-
acters would like meet, what they’re doing together, and
the general state of things before the action starts. The GM
then initiates the action by describing the exact situation
in which the action starts, and the players begin to play the
action.
Maria: Hey, Damien. I’m about to call for another briefing action and you still haven’t used your privileged interlude yet. Want to?
Damien: Uh, I dunno.
Maria: All you have to do is say who you want in-volved in the action and we’ll go from there.
Damien: Okay, let’s do an action with Sara and Megan, since she’s my primary anchor.
Maria: Great! ... Hmm ... can anyone remember who had the last interlude?
Chris: Nope.
115
Phoebe: Huh ... no.
Damien: Don’t look at me.
Maria: Okay, I guess I’m the judge for this ac-tion, then. Phoebe and Damien, where do Sara and Megan meet?
Phoebe: Maybe there’s a party after the success-ful mission and we’re there?
Damien: Okay, but I think Sara would get over-whelmed. Maybe she’s sitting outside and you come out to check up on her.
Phoebe: Great.
Maria: Okay, so you’re sitting down on the front steps. There’s a party going on inside, there’s lights and music which is a huge extravagance, and the sound of lots of people talking. It gets louder for a second as Megan opens the door, then it quiets down again as she shuts it.
Playing out an Interlude
ActionDuring an interlude action, all players who own characters
taking part in the action tell us what their characters do
and say. Largely, the actions should simply consist of the
characters’ interactions. If it’s necessary (like if a character
moves to a new location), the GM controls and describes
the environment of the action.
116
Phoebe: When you play out an interlude, you don’t need to feel bound into the initial situation that the GM sets up for the interlude. If your character would want to go and do something else, just say so.
Chris: But if you walk off and leave someone hanging, they might not like you very much.
Damien: What do you do if the characters split up?
Maria: Often, that means it’s the end of the ac-tion. If it isn’t, it’s best to follow the pilot.
Damien: What if some people get into a competi-tion or a fight? Who wins?
Chris: It’s not a big deal, really.
Maria: True, but generally that’s the GM’s call. The pilot with the higher bliss should usually come out ahead on confrontations during interlude actions, though.
At the GM or controlling players’ option, new charac-
ters can be added to the action, except if the action is a
privileged action, in which case this is at the option of the
player who called for the action.
Chris: Sometimes, when you play out an interlude action as a pilot, you’ll have a specific result that you want. In that case, you’ll want to try to steer interactions towards a specific type. But other times, you’ll just want to let things play out and see what develops.
117
Because they aren’t mechanically complex, interlude ac-
tions don’t take a lot of time to play out. Generally speak-
ing, an interlude action shouldn’t last more than 5 minutes.
In some rare cases, it might go as high as ten. The ideal
interlude action takes 2 or 3 minutes to play out. Once the
characters have had some significant, meaningful interac-
tion, cut it short. The Judge is the player who has the final
authority over when the action ends.
Closing the Action: Trust
Breaking, Judging, and
ConsequencesAfter the Judge calls the action to a close, it’s time to
resolve the consequences of the interlude. There are two
parts to this decision.
First, any player may say that one of the characters that
they control had their trust broken by another character’s
actions during that action. If this is the case, the trust in the
relationship goes down by one, with attendant conse-
quences. This results in a a follow-up action, as well.
Only one relationship can suffer a trust loss from any given
action. If multiple people claim that their trust was broken,
the Judge decides which betrayal was more central to the
action, and that one has mechanical effect.
After there has been an opportunity to discuss trust break-
ing, the Judge decides on an outcome for the action,
118
depending on the actions and behavior of the characters.
There are four common types of actions, as well as some
additional sorts that will be mentioned later. The four com-
mon types are described below.
Trauma ReliefIf the action has focused largely on the pilot dealing with
his own problems and fears and concerns, rather than on
the relationship between him and another character, and
the Pilot has any Trauma, the action can be a Trauma relief
action for that Pilot. Trauma relief reduces the Pilot’s Trauma
by one.
Stress ReliefIf the action is focused on problems in a relationship,
whether newly emerging or long-held, and that relation-
ship has any Stress, the action can be a Stress relief action
for that relationship. Stress relief reduces the Stress on the
relationship to zero.
Trust BuildingIf the action is focused on developing, defining, or reaffirm-
ing the core of the relationship and that relationship has
less than five Trust and no Stress, the action can be a Trust
building action for that relationship. Trust building increas-
es the Trust of that relationship by one.
Intimacy BuildingIf the action is focused on escalating intimacy in a relation-
ship, in any way, and the relationship has less than five
Intimacy, the action might be an Intimacy Building action
119
for that relationship. Intimacy building raises the intimacy
for that relationship by one.
There are also additional restrictions on intimacy build-
ing. Depend on the present intimacy of the relationship,
a certain minimum of action must be taken to increase
intimacy. These are only minimums, and are listed in the
chart on the next page.
Maria: It’s important to remember that the Judge may not determine that the action has “no out-come.” Every interlude action has some affect on its participants.
The Judge’s choice is final. If she wants, she may ask ques-
tions of the other players watching the action or even
those that controlled characters during the action in order
to make the decision, but once it is made it is fixed.
Chris: Sometimes you don’t get what you want out of an action. That’s okay!
After the Judge has decided what sort of outcome the
action has had, mark down the mechanical changes to the
affected relationships. Check to see if Stress is now higher
than Trust -- if it is, you must drop Trust by one and reduce
Stress to zero.
Intimacy Level Name Required Action
One Names and Eyes Exchange Names
Make Eye Contact
••
Two Hands and Mouths Physical contact
Involved
conversation
Sing together
Work on a project
together
Share food together
••
••
•
Three Touch and Mess Affectionate
physical contact
Personal
conversation
Make food together
Get drunk together
Get into a fight
•
•
•••
Four Blood and Spit Kiss
Touch Sexually
See each other
naked
Exchange blood
Physically fight for
real
•••
••
Five Sex Have sex•
120
121
Phoebe (as Megan): Sara, what’s wrong? Are you angry at me for something?
Damien (as Sara): I take her hands and then just hug her. “I’m sorry, it’s just that ... I’m sorry. Don’t go back in there. Stay with me.”
Phoebe: I... people will notice!
Damien: Who cares if people notice! I love you! I don’t care if anyone knows it. I start shouting “I love you!”
Phoebe: “Be quiet be ...” Megan storms off.
Maria (as judge): And let’s end the action there. I think that that was definitely stress relief.
Damien: I think my trust was broken.
Phoebe: Okay, that means I get a follow-up ac-tion...
Maria (as GM): Okay, so we’re in the back of an old convenience store. It’s mostly been looted, but we’ve come across a huge flat of old cheap canned beer and have been laying into it. We’re both well past drunk already.
Chris (as Josh): Dude, what’s up between you and Sara, anyway?
Maria (as Keenan): Ahw, hell, I dunno, I mean, nothing really, she’s just gotten all weird and girly on me all of a sudden.
122
Chris: Uh ... what do you mean by that?
Maria: She’s pretty cute and all, but she’s re-ally not all that. Lousy lay, and now she wants to talk about ‘our relationship’ all the time. Fuck her.
Chris: Oh, fuck that noise! I haul back and hit him.
Maria: What the hell man?!
Chris: I don’t listen, I just keep hitting him. “Don’t talk about her like that! You don’t get to talk about her like that!”
Maria: I’m not hitting back, I’m just trying to defend myself. “Jesus, dude, get a handle on yourself.”
Damien (as Judge): Okay, let’s cut there. You’re defintely fighting for real, so that’s intimacy building.
Maria: Was anyone’s trust broken?
Chris: Nah, not really. I trust Keenan about as far as I can throw him, anyway.
Trust Breaking and Follow-up
ActionsIf there was Trust-breaking in the action, who-ever con-
trolled the character whose behavior caused the break gets
the privilege of calling for a follow-up action. A follow-up
123
action can involve any characters at all (it need not even
feature pilots). The follow up action should be connected,
loosely or directly, to the trust-breaking which initiated it.
Special Considerations
DenouementA denouement is a special interlude action which occurs
after a relationship has been destroyed, at the option of the
controllers of the characters in that relationship. It is called
for by them, focuses on the ending of their relationship,
and has no mechanical effect.
Rebuilding ActionsIf the action has two characters with a destroyed relation-
ship, a possible outcome of the action is Rebuilding. This
starts a new relationship between the characters rated at
one intimacy and one trust.
Humanization actionsIf there are no pilot characters in the action, it is a human-
ization action, which focuses on the relationship between
two non-pilot characters. A humanization action starts a
special relationship between two non-pilot characters,
which has Intimacy equal to whatever is demonstrated
during the action and Trust set to two. Further humaniza-
tion action raise Trust by one.
Absent CharactersIf a character is absent from the group, it’s not generally
appropriate to call for an action with him.
124
Declining ActionsA player may always opt not to call for an interlude action
even if the rules say that they are allowed to. Generally, if
you do not take a action when it is allowed, the opportu-
nity is lost. If a pilot’s player does not use her privileged
action between one mission and the next, she loses that
privilege. However, she may call for it at any time, even
right before a briefing starts.
Causing Harm and Death during InterludesA heavily traumatized pilot may cause harm or even death
to non-pilot characters during an interlude action. Whether
or not harm was caused is up to the Judge, although
it should generally be quite obvious. A pilot with three
trauma may cause harm during an interlude action (and kill
harmed characters), a pilot with five or more trauma may
kill a non-pilot character during an interlude action. Caus-
ing death or harm may cancel out the ordinary effects of
the action, depending on the context.
Pilots with less trauma simply cannot bring themselves to
carry out such actions.
125
Chapter Summary Interlude actions focus on the pilot’s relationships.
Generally, the GM calls for interlude actions, but pilots
who have completed a mission also gain that privilege.
Privilege can also be gained in other ways.
To call for an action, simply name the characters
involved, and the owners of those characters decide the
situation that they meet in.
The judge of an action may not control a character in
the action, and is generally the player who last benefitted
from an interlude.
To open the action, the GM describes the environment.
The players of the characters show them interacting,
describing what they say and do.
When the judge has decided on the result of the ac-
tion, she calls the action to a close.
The possible results are intimacy building, trust build-
ing, trauma relief and stress relief. “No result” is not pos-
sible. There are other restrictions on when certain results
may be given.
Anyone can declare that the trust of any character
that they own was broken during the action. The trust in
that relationship goes down by one, and the player who
broke trust gets the privilege to immediately call for a
follow-up action.
Keep calling for interludes until the GM calls for a new
briefing action.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
127
Briefing actions are the third most common type of action
in the game of Bliss Stage, and are considerably more re-
strained in their structure and contents than either mission
or interlude actions. Briefing actions serve to introduce a
mission. They usually happen in the authority figure’s office
or in some sort of operations room, although as you be-
come more experienced you might branch out into other
settings for a briefing action.
During a briefing action, the GM (usually in the voice of
the authority figure) will explain the basics of the mission,
delineate the mission goals, and pick a pilot and anchor
for the mission or ask for volunteers. Pilots and anchors
will ask questions about the mission, and pilots will decide
whether to accept the mission or shirk it. The main me-
Briefing Actions
128
chanical impact of a briefing action is the establish a new
mission and pick a pilot and anchor for it, but there may
also be other effects.
After a briefing action, move directly into the first mission
action of the mission that you’ve just established, unless no
one accepted the mission, in which case have more inter-
lude actions or move straight into another briefing action.
Calling for a Briefing ActionThe GM may call for a briefing action at any time that
another action is not in progress. Any other player who
has the privilege to call for an action may interrupt to call
for their privileged action instead -- as soon as a briefing
action starts, all these privileges are lost. Once all such
privileged actions have been resolved, the briefing action
begins.
Phoebe: These privileged actions must be resolved before the briefing action takes place. For in-stance, if Maria says “Klaxons are blazing -- the base is under attack” and I have a privileged action left, my action should take place as we’re scrambling to get ready.
Chris: There are three ways that someone can have this sort of privileged action, as follows:
They can have a privileged interlude action because they were a pilot on the last mission.
They can have a follow-up action because they broke someone’s trust
•
•
129
They can have a final action and a resolution action because their pilot has died or passed 108 bliss.
Initiating a Briefing ActionThe GM describes how all the characters are called the lo-
cation of the briefing (are there klaxons blaring? are they all
called to a secret location in the middle of the night? etc)
and says what anchors are present. Players may opt to not
have their characters present for the action if that makes
sense. At the GM’s discretion, pilots who are not present
may suffer as if they shirked the action (see below.)
Playing out a Briefing ActionThe GM, usually in the character of the Authority Figure,
describes the mission in general terms, and then specifies
each of the the mission’s objectives.
If any mission objective has a special relationship with
other mission objectives, or has a special consequence tied
to its success or failure, the GM should either mention this
at this time or note them secretly. If the GM opts to keep
these secret, he must mention to the players the possible
effect, although he need not mention what goal it is tied to
or who it targets.
During this time, the pilots may ask questions about the ex-
act nature of the mission and its goals, which the authority
figure answers according to his knowledge and discretion.
•
130
After the mission has been explained, the mission goals
and consequences laid out, and any questions are an-
swered, the authority figure must either pick a pilot and an
anchor for the mission, or must ask for volunteers.
All anchors always accept the mission. Pilots, however, may
choose to accept or reject the mission. If they choose to
shirk the mission, there are various consequences, and the
authority figure must pick another pilot for the mission. If
all pilots shirk, the mission is simply failed. Likewise, if the
authority figure asks for volunteers, and none come for-
ward, the consequences of shirking are applied to all pilots.
Closing a Briefing ActionAfter a pilot and an anchor have been chosen for the mis-
sion, the anchor’s player describes to the pilot’s player how
the anchor prepares the pilot for the mission, talking in
the anchor’s voice and working through the beginnings of
engaging the pilot’s ANIMa and bringing the pilot into the
dream. This can just work directly into the first part of the
mission action.
Maria: Okay, a couple of days later, Jim calls you all into his office. “We’ve been picking up some very strange readings from across the bay,” he says, “and we need an experienced pilot inves-tigate it. The mission’s objectives are to cross the bridge, going undetected the entire time, and take as much reconnaissance as you can. Anna, you’re it.”
Phoebe (as Anna): No.
131
Maria: “No?” He stands up. “What the fuck do you mean, ‘no?’”
Phoebe: Josh already got perfectly good data that we haven’t even started going through yet. You just don’t want to admit ... GRah! I storm off.
Maria: Sara, get suited up. Nathan will anchor you. Anna and I need to ... have a talk.
For another example briefing action, see the First Action chapter on page 83.
Consequences of ShirkingThe main consequence of a briefing action is to establish
the goal of the next mission and to choose a pilot and an
anchor for the next mission. However, if one or more pilots
opted to shirk the mission, there are attendant conse-
quences for those pilots. Any shirking pilots have their
relationship with the authority figure gain one stress, and
also those pilots gain one trauma. If a pilot shirks multiple
missions in a row, these effects are cumulative (for the sec-
ond consecutive shirking, two stress and two trauma, for
the third, three stress and three trauma, and so on.)
Maria: So, Anna totally shirked her mission in that last action. This is the first time she’s done that in a while, so it’s one trauma, one stress, right.
Phoebe (marks it down): Yeah. That brings me up to three stress with Jim. One more and we’ll lose some trust.
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Special Considerations
Briefings not given by the authority figureOther characters will have things that they want the pilots
to do, and some of them will try to get the pilots to enter
their ANIMa without the permission or knowledge of the
authority figure. Other times, the authority figure may be
absent or unable to give a briefing, and someone else must
give it in his stead.
If the secondary characters involved are controlled by the
GM, the briefing action can proceed as normal, with that
character taking the role of the authority figure. In other
cases, the GM may ask for the loan of that character for the
duration of the action or the GM may specify the mission
goals and structure to another player, who then briefs the
pilot (and anchor).
Secret briefingsIt is possible that there will be situations in which the au-
thority figure briefs a single pilot for a special mission that
he does not call all the pilots together for. In these cases,
the other pilots should not be penalized for shirking.
Broken relationship with the authority figureIn the case that the pilot’s relationship with the authority
figure is broken, and he still shirks a mission, he takes terror
equal to the stress he would have otherwise taken.
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Chapter Summary A briefing action serves in introduce a mission
It is always called for by the GM.
In the briefing action, the authority figure informs the
pilots and anchors about the nature of the mission.
Additionally, the GM should clarify any consequences
of the mission, and answer questions from the players.
If there are secret consequences, she should inform the
players.
When a pilot and anchor are chosen, the action ends.
A pilot chosen for a mission may decline, at the cost
of damaging his relationship to the authority figure and
taking on some trauma.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
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Mission PlanningOne of the foremost tasks of the GM in a game of Bliss
Stage is to plan the game’s missions. Usually, for this, the
GM is going to be presenting missions that, in the fiction of
the game, the authority figure himself has planned for the
pilots to undertake. Sometimes, the GM will be presenting
missions that other people have planned, or that have to
be undertaken in times of emergency.
Missions are generally quite simple to plan -- they consist
of 2-8 mission objectives, possibly inter-related, possibly
with consequences for failure or success. If you can’t think
of your own missions, though, you can use one of the ex-
amples that’s provided for you at the end of this section.
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Basic Techniques
ThemeThe first thing to do for a mission is get a general sense of
the theme of the mission. This is just a summary of the mis-
sion in general: where it takes place and what the pilot is
trying to do. “Defend the base from attackers,” “scout enemy
headquarters,” “test the new stealth array” and “come to the
assistance of our allies in the west” are all perfectly reason-
able mission themes.
The mission’s theme should be tied to at least one of the
group’s hopes. For instance, a group that had the hope “I
hope we can defeat the aliens militarily” could have many
missions with themes like “fight off the aliens,” “attack an en-
emy outpost,” or “track down and assassinate enemy com-
mander.” A group that had the hope “I hope we understand
the Bliss” could have mission goals like “protect Simon while
he sleeps,” “test new scientific equipment” and “scout the
surrounding dream world.”
Phoebe: Something I’ve seen GMs do, which I like, is to
give each mission an evocative title, something like “Once
Around the Sun” or “Surprise Party.” This is fun: It makes the
game feel like a manga or TV series, cut up into these little
chunks.
GoalsA mission is, in short, a series of two to eight goals. These
goals are simply various possible things that the pilot could
accomplish that are in keeping with the theme of the mis-
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sion. Each goal will be the subject of one or more mission
actions, so try not to make them too trivial or too large. In
general, try to keep the goals separately achievable, so that
if one goal is failed the mission may still continue. Also, try
to keep the goals so that they are worthwhile to achieve.
For instance, imagine a mission with the theme “protect Si-
mon while he sleeps,” like was mentioned above. A bad set
of goals would be “Keep the aliens from getting to simon
for the first hour,” “keep the aliens from getting to simon
for the second hour,” and “keep the aliens from getting to
simon for the third hour.” These goals are intertwined -- if
you fail the first, there is not much point in even trying the
other two. Also, they are basically identical. A good set of
goals for the same mission would be “gather scientific read-
ings,” “observe alien behavior” and “keep Simon safe.” These
goals are all separately achievable and they are all notice-
ably different from each other.
The number of goals in a mission also determines its dif-
ficulty. A mission with two goals is quite easy. A mission
with eight goals will have enormous costs to victory. Most
missions should be around four or five goals.
Maria: That’s it for the basics of mission de-sign! The stuff ahead is more complicated: If it’s your first time GMing Bliss Stage, you only need to know about theme and goals, above. Skip ahead to the examples on page 144.
138
Advanced Techniques
Multiple Pilots on a MissionThere are many circumstances when a mission might
require multiple pilots. Perhaps it is so difficult it needs
more than one ANIMa to attempt it. Perhaps all the pilots
are scrambled to repel an invading army. Perhaps one pilot
has, unauthorized, entered the dream world in order to
help another pilot.
There are three basic ways of having two pilots on a
mission: Totally separately, with shared goals, or acting
together.
The simplest is simply to have the pilots operate totally
separately. Both pilots have their own list of goals which
they are operating on their own to accomplish. In an
extreme case, perhaps one pilot takes the first half of the
mission, another pilot the second half of the mission. For
a little more connection, the two pilots mission goals
might be related to each other (see below): The first pilot
succeeding in a goal might open new possible goals for a
second pilot.
Another possibility is to have mission goals which either pi-
lot can accomplish. For instance, in a otherwise completely
separate mission, there might be four alien fighters, which
any pilot on can destroy with a successful mission action.
Thus there are four mission goals that any pilot can take up
if they (and their anchor) want to. A mission can have this
sort of shared goal in addition to individual goals, or all the
mission goals can be shared.
139
The last possibility to to have some mission goals which
can only be achieved by the cooperation of two or more
pilots. For these mission goals, things are a little more
complicated. The anchors involved lead the pilots up to the
point where they can accomplish the goal, then all pilots
involved hit the climax of their action simultaneously. The
GM uses the highest trauma in the group to threaten with.
Additionally, the mission success and pilot’s safety cat-
egories require one additional die for each pilot involved
in the action beyond the first. All pilots roll their dice and
can place them into any category, even the relationships
of other pilots. Once all dice have been placed, read the
results as normal, but mission success and pilot’s safety
results apply to all pilots, not just one.
These three possibilities are not incompatible: A mission
with multiple pilots might have some goals which are
individual for each pilot, some goals which are gener-
ally available, and some goals which require cooperation
between pilots.
Every pilot who took at least one action in a multiple pilot
mission is given a privileged action at the end of it.
Maria: Note that multiple pilot missions should have more goals than standard pilot missions, so that there’s enough for everyone to do, and enough risk to go around.
Related GoalsGoals are generally unrelated from each other -- any one
of them can be accomplished even if previous goals have
been failed. However, sometimes the GM may want to
140
establish related goals, so that the success or failure of one
goal affects other goals. Here are some ways to do this.
Sequence of eventsThe mission goals come in a specific order. One goal must
be attempted before another goal can be attempted. It
does not matter if the first goal succeeds or fails, only that it
is attempted at all.
Chain reactionFailing a particular goal automatically causes one or more
other goals to fail.
PrerequisitesA goal must be achieved before another goal may even be
attempted at all.
Plan BFailing a particular goal allows another goal to be attempt-
ed.
This isn’t the limit of ways to relate different goals! There’s
lots of other combinations.
Chris: Be really careful about using related goals. In general, if there’s any way at all that you can think the goals could be accomplished separately, they should not be related.
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Rewards and Consequences
Sometimes, it’s appropriate for the success or failure of a
mission goal to have mechanical consequences outside
of this particular mission. These sorts of effects can be as-
signed in one of three ways. The GM may announce them
during the mission briefing, the GM may write them down
secretly during the briefing, or the group may decide that
they are appropriate when resolving the effects of a mis-
sion action.
If the GM writes down secret consequences during the
briefing, she must announce that there are secret conse-
quences to some goals of this mission. She must announce
the largest scale of these consequences. If there are
secret rewards, she only needs to say that there are secret
rewards.
Listed below are the possible consequences for failure and
rewards for success. You can make up your own, but under
absolutely no circumstances can the success or failure of a
mission goal affect any values: bliss, terror, trauma, inti-
macy, trust, or stress.
In general, positive rewards should be attached to success,
negative rewards should be attached to failure. If the situa-
tion merits it, however, these might be reversed.
Rewards and consequences may be attached to more than
one goal. For instance, you could say “if these two goals
succeed, this effect occurs.” Or “If any of these goals are
failed, this effect occurs.
142
Listed below are the possible rewards for success. While re-
wards aren’t limited to just these, no reward should directly
change any values, either a pilot’s values or a relationship’s
values.
New FaceA new character is introduced to the group. This character
has a default starting relationship with everyone, except
the pilot that accomplished the mission goal in question.
RecoveryA harmed character is restored to normal status.
ReturnAn absent character is returned to the group.
Anchor TrainingA secondary character now can function as an anchor, if
necessary.
Pilot TrainingA secondary character now can function as a pilot. Only
use this in a longer campaign. (See “Longer Campaigns” on
pg 164)
New TechnologyNew types of missions are now possible.
Next we’re going to take a look at the possible conse-
quences of failure. Like with rewards, you can make up your
143
own consequences. However, they should never directly
change any values.
HarmA non-pilot character is harmed. If a character suffers harm
a second time, they are killed.
DeathA non-pilot character is killed.
BlissA non-pilot character falls into the Bliss. Like death, this
destroys all relationships.
AbsenceA character leaves the group.
Secret GoalsLike with secret consequences and rewards, the GM might
have secret goals which are not revealed until midway
through the mission, or are perhaps related to the success
and failure of other goals. This is fine, but like with the con-
sequences and rewards, she must write them down before
the mission starts.
Wild Card GoalsA wild card goal is a mission goal like “do whatever is nec-
essary.” Essentially, a wild card goal requires that the pilot
declare a hotshot goal (see pg 106) based on their present
understanding of the situation.
144
Out of Dream MissionsOnce you’re very comfortable with the structure of mis-
sions, you might try some missions which take place
partially in the real world. For these missions, there is no
anchor. Relationships only give dice if that person is helpful
to the pilot, directly or indirectly. The world is always de-
scribed by the GM, the pilot’s safety category is interpreted
as physical or emotional harm to the pilot.
Example MissionsHere are some example missions to get you started. You
can use these wholesale or take inspiration from them and
design your own.
Defend the Base!Keep aliens away from the base
If failed, character is harmed
Duel with alien ace fighter
Decimate alien forces
Sneak attack!
If failed, a character is killed
This is a secret goal.
Test the new ANIMa platformForm ANIMa
Walking test
Sensors test
Weapons test
Test new disguise array
If successful, diguise missions are possible
Engage enemy patrol
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Investigate Mysterious PhenomenaSet up sensor array
Locate dream disturbance
Don’t get caught in the disturbances
Fight nightmare creatures
Take readings
Recon deep in enemy territoryEvade patrols
If failed, then fight patrols
Map the area
Find good ambush sites
Locate secret base
If successful, then infiltrate base
Anchor TrainingForm ANIMa
Visualization test
Guidance test
If all mission objectives successful, character is now an
anchor
Assault Enemy BaseApproach enemy base stealthily
If failed, then fight patrols
Defeat external defenses
Enter the base
If failed, remaining goals fail
Locate intelligence headquarters
If succeeded, obtain files
If obtain files fails, destroy fails
Locate core command
If succeeded, destroy core command
Escape base
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Chapter Summary One of the central tasks of GMing a campaign of Bliss
Stage is planning the missions.
All missions should have a general theme: where the
pilot is, what he is doing, or anything like that.
Each mission is made up of a series of goals, each one
of which will be the focus of at least one mission action.
In addition, there are many ways to elaborate on the
basic mission design.
1)
2)
3)
4)
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149
Final and Resolution
ActionsFinal actions and resolution actions are only taken when a
pilot’s trauma exceeds 6 or his bliss exceeds 108. After the
pilot’s final action, he will henceforth be dead or absent,
and then that pilot’s player gets the privilege of resolving
one of the group’s Hopes in a resolution action.
Final actions are the way that the group says goodbye to
a pilot character. Resolution actions are the way that the
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group sees the effects of their struggle on the world at
large.
Traumatic DeathWhen a pilot passes 6 trauma, that pilot’s player must im-
mediately call for a final action. This occurs immediately
following whatever caused his trauma to raise past 6 (usu-
ally during a mission action) and the pilot is free to specify
any details. The action plays out quite simply: the pilot’s
player says what happens. Other players may state actions
of characters that they normally control, but these are
taken as only suggestions. There are only two limitations to
this: the first is that the pilot’s player cannot directly control
other player’s pilots, nor kill them, nor alter any relation-
ships, although they can still be involved in the action; and
the second is that no more than two non-pilot characters
may be harmed or killed. The action climaxes with the char-
acter’s death, and should close (again, at the pilot’s player’s
discretion) shortly afterwards.
If this final action resolves a hope, mark that hope off and
note how it resolved. If it does not resolve a hope, the
pilot’s player picks a hope and scratches it off. This hope
may not be resolved during this game, even during final
resolution.
Phoebe: Sometimes, rarely, a pilot might get a traumatic death outside of a mission. If that happens, the pilot’s traumatic death might be less immediate. Nonetheless, it should be the next action.
151
Maria: When a character dies, remember to check the bliss generated by the broken relationships that they leave in their wake.
Anna, played by Phoebe, is fighting her way to the core of the alien base. Jenny, played by Damien, is anchoring her. Outgunned and overwhelmed, plus some unlucky rolling by Phoebe, and Anna’s trauma passes 6.
Phoebe: Yup, that last point of terror did it. That’s it for Anna.
Damien: Sad.
Maria: Yup, but you still get your traumatic death action.
Phoebe: What are the hopes again?
Chris: I hope we ca raise a second generation and I hope we can defeat the aliens.
Phoebe: Okay, so I’m crashing around inside the alien base, totally overwhelmed by the hordes at-tacking me.
Damien (as Jenny): You got to get out! You’ve got to get out!
Phoebe (as Anna): “I can see it’s brain from here! If I can just make it.” I pause for a sec-ond. “Tell Archer about me, okay, Jenny? Prom-ise?”
Damien: No! Stop! Don’t do it!
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Phoebe: I’m rocketing towards the brain and blow-ing myself up, taking the base out with me.
Chris: Awesome.
Maria: Wow. Cool. I guess that does resolve “I hope we can defeat the aliens.”
Phoebe: Yeah...
Bliss Out:If a pilot passes 108 bliss, he is said to have “blissed out,”
which can mean any number of things, at the pilot’s discre-
tion. The default assumption is that the pilot drifts off into
the bliss, never to awaken, but a great number of other
final actions are possible. The only limitation is that (with
one exception) the pilot may no longer be a member of
this particular resistance group, nor can they continue as a
significant character in the game. Here are some possibili-
ties for the final action:
The pilot falls asleep, never to awaken.
The pilot gets lost in the dream world.
The pilot merges with or allies with the aliens.
The pilot goes off to start another resistance group.
Disgusted, the pilot leaves the group, never to return.
The pilot is killed.
The pilot’s ANIMa enters the real world, rampaging
around before finally being stopped.
Something else
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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The pilot replaces the authority figure as the head of
the resistance.
In all cases but the last, treat the pilot’s relationships as bro-
ken, and count the bliss they generate. In the last case, the
pilot’s player replaces the current GM as the Game Master,
handing the old GM control over all his remaining anchor
characters. (see page 163)
Like in a traumatic death, the pilot’s player has complete
discretion over his final action if he blisses out, although he
may not directly control other people’s pilots, nor may he
adjust relationships, nor may he harm nor kill more than
two secondary characters.
If the pilot’s player resolved a hope with his final action,
note how it was resolved and mark it off. If no hope was
resolved, the player must now take a resolution action (see
below.)
Resolution ActionsThe player of a pilot who blissed out and did not resolve a
hope with his final action is entitled to a resolution action.
This must immediately follow from their pilot’s final action.
To call for a resolution action, the pilot picks an unad-
dressed hope to resolve and announces it to the entire
group. Then he initiates the resolution action by describing
a scene where we will see this hope resolved or where we
will see the after effects of its resolution.
•
154
Like with a final action, the pilot’s controls much of the
resolution action, although he can yield control of various
characters to other players (often their normal owners.) The
pilot’s player is the ultimate authority, however. Once the
hope is satisfactorily resolved, the action closes.
Phoebe: Make sure that, when you resolve a hope, you don’t also resolve other related hopes. That’s important to watch out for.
Sara, played by Damien, and Josh, played by Chris, are involved in an interlude action where they have a horrible fight. Sara storms out.
Damien: I think you broke my trust, there.
Chris: Yeah, and that kills our relationship. With four intimacy, that gives us both eight bliss.
Damien: Oh, man, that puts Sara over 108.
Maria: Okay, so now you get a resolution action. Anything you want, but the one remaining hope is “can we raise a second generation” so it should address that.
Damien: Okay, I’ve got a plan. I think that later that night, Sara sneaks into Archer’s room.
Maria (as Archer): Ma... ma?
Damien (as Sara): Shhh... yes, I’m your mama now. C’mon... I pick him up... mama’s gonna take you really far away from here, somewhere where we’ll
155
both be safe and you won’t have to worry anymore, okay?
Maria: He falls asleep on your shoulder.
Damien: Okay, I just quietly carry him out of the base and go off. None of your ever see me again. The answer to the hope, I guess, is that we can’t raise a second generation, but maybe I can.
Phoebe: Wow.
Chris: That was really cool.
Maria: Nice.
Damien: Uh, thanks.
Final Resolution ActionWhen there is only one pilot remaining, that pilot’s player
may call for the final resolution action. By this point, all of
your hopes have already been erased or resolved, so the
final resolution does not resolve any hopes. Rather, it serves
to tie together all the existing resolutions, and give a clear
ending to the campaign.
Like with any other resolution action, everything is up to
the discretion of the pilot, in this case the last pilot in the
game.
There is no need to wait until the pilot passes 6 trauma or
108 bliss to begin final resolution. However, if the pilot does
156
reach either of these states, final resolution must happen
immediately.
Chris: Okay, I’m just going to go into final reso-lution right away, if no one minds.
Phoebe: Go ahead.
Damien: Knock yourself out.
Chris: So, I think that about a week passes since we defeated the last of the aliens. The gangs begin to notice that the remotes aren’t striking any more, and no one has fallen asleep from the Bliss. They’re all up here, with me as a de facto leader after my dad died, trying to figure out what to do. Why don’t all of you be leaders and we’ll play it out a bit?
Maria: Okay.
Phoebe: Look, what are you saying, exactly?
Chris: They’re all dead. We beat them. They’re never coming back.
Damien: So where does that leave us? I mean, that’s not going to feed anyone.
Chris: Nope.
Maria: And there’s fighting in the streets now. No one knows what to do. Everyone thinks it’s the end of the world.
Chris: Yup.
157
Phoebe: So what are you going to do about it?
Chris: Not my job.
Maria: Not your job? You can’t just!
Chris: I stand up and look as mean as I can. “Look, people, it’s not my job. I just fought a war. You sort out your own problems!” and I storm out of the room.
Chris: I think that people gradually settle back into life as it was before the Bliss. Borders get redrawn, but no one really learns anything. There’s still tons of wars and crap everywhere. And I don’t think that Josh has anything to do with it. I think he holes up in some old city and just lives alone until he dies.
Maria: Yikes.
Phoebe: Cool.
Chris: Yeah, that’s it. I just can’t see him do-ing anything else after all that.
Damien: I think it was basically what we were heading towards.
Maria: Okay, awesome, people, that’s the end of it.
158
About resolving hopesBefore initiating a final action or a resolution action, take
a look at the hopes that might be resolved by that action.
In particular, look at the old mission sheets for the mis-
sions which were related to those hopes. The resolving
player should take a moment to think about these previous
actions and missions, and how they relate to the hope in
question. Resolving a hope is the biggest decision in Bliss
Stage, make your decision about how the hope resolves
based on the history of the game you’ve played.
That’s not to say that the past must dictate how the hope
resolves. It is totally possible that you might meet with
failure after failure only to succeed at the last moment, or
meet with success after success only to find that it was all
for naught. The final decision is left to you, the player of the
game, as to what is appropriate for the game’s ending.
Special Considerations
Longer or Shorter CampaignsIn longer or shorter campaigns, these rules may work dif-
ferently. That’s covered by the appropriate alternate rules
section on pg 164.
159
Chapter Summary A pilot can go out by passing 6 trauma or 108 bliss.
If a pilot passes 6 trauma, they die a traumatic death.
When a pilot dies a traumatic death, their player gets
to go into all the details of how they die violently right
then and there. If, in doing so, a hope is resolved, that’s all
good. If a hope is not resolved, the pilot’s player picks one
of the hopes and crosses it off. It will never be resolved.
If a pilot passes 108 bliss, they immediately get to
decide how the pilot goes out, in any way that means
that they are no longer part of the resistance cell, or in
any way that they become the new authority figure.
Afterwards, they may stage an action which resolves any
one hope.
Once all hopes are resolved, the one remaining pilot
may initiate final resolution at any time. Final resolution
ties up all the hopes and gives a vision of the future of
humanity. It is the last action of the game.
When resolving hopes, be sure not to negate previous
resolutions of different hopes.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
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Special Circumstances
Many special circumstances might come up in your play.
Characters will die, leave the group, become pregnant.
The power structures in your resistance cell might change.
Similarly, you might find yourself in a situation with too
many players, or too few. Or you might decide that you
want to play an on-going campaign which has no definite
ending. Or, perhaps, you only have a few engagements to
play the campaign to its finish.
This chapter offers suggestions and rules for dealing with
these situations as they emerge during your play.
162
DeathCharacters can die in many ways: Pilots can die from pass-
ing 108 bliss or 6 trauma, anchors can die from missions
gone wrong, and any non-pilot character can be harmed
or killed in a number of other ways.
If a character dies, all of that character’s relationships are
broken. As per normal for broken relationships, the other
characters in the relationships gain bliss equal to twice the
intimacy of the relationship.
Relationships with dead characters cannot be used in ac-
tions. Dead characters may not be brought back to life.
Pregnancy and BirthA female character who is sexually active might become
pregnant, at the agreement of the playing who owns that
character and the GM. A mother has an initial relation-
ship with her unborn child of 3 intimacy / 3 trust, which
includes the +1 intimacy for direct blood relationships.
The father has a relationship of 2 intimacy / 2 trust, again
including the +1 intimacy for direct blood relationships.
All other character have a relationship of 1 intimacy, 1 trust
with the child.
If the mother’s relationship with the child is broken, the
pregnancy miscarries and the child is killed.
163
Becoming an AnchorA character may become an anchor via anchor training
missions. When a character becomes an anchor, select a
special ability for them and, if the GM owns them, give
ownership to a non-GM player.
The GM should endeavor to have at least two anchors in
the group.
Becoming a PilotIn a long game, a character may become a pilot via a pilot
training mission. For such a character, keep all existing re-
lationships (including bliss gain from broken relationships),
and pick a pilot template to fill in the rest. Relationships
with other pilots lose one trust, immediately.
Changing Authority FiguresEither via a pilot’s final action or in the normal course of
play, the authority figure may end up being usurped or re-
placed. The character replacing the authority figure cannot
be a pilot or an anchor and, if they previously were, cannot
continue in that role.
When this happens, the player who owns the new author-
ity figure becomes the new GM of the game. The old GM
takes over any anchor or pilot characters that the new GM
owns.
164
Alternatively, if the other player does not wish to be the
GM, the old GM may simply take ownership of the new
authority figure.
If this happens and the old authority figure is still alive, they
lose one trust in all characters.
Changing HopesSometimes it becomes clear in play that a hope was
inappropriate for the campaign. Maybe it was too large in
scope, maybe it was too small in scope, maybe it was just
the tip of a more important question. Regardless, if this is
the case, hopes may be changed between engagements
by mutual consent of all the players of the game. When
you do this, either elaborate on the old hope or pick a new
hope from the list, as appropriate.
Longer CampaignsSome groups like to play extraordinarily long role-playing
campaigns, lasting for months and years. If you want to
play a longer game of Bliss Stage, here’s how to go about it.
In the beginning of the game, select two hopes (regardless
of the number of players). Whenever a pilot dies or blisses
out, he may resolve or remove one of these hopes, and
then picks a new hope (not previously resolved) from the
list to be resolved. That player may, at their option, create
a new character to be a new pilot or promote an existing
character to pilot status via a pilot training mission.
165
When you decide to end the campaign, simply do not
pick new hopes. When all hopes have been resolved or
removed, the non-GM player who resolved or removed the
least hopes gets the privilege of final resolution.
Shorter CampaignsFor a marginally shorter campagn, give every pilot a point
of bliss after each interlude action.
For a substantially shorter game, have less players choose
to play pilots. Players without pilots should play the an-
chors.
One Pilot GamesIt is possible to play a campaign with a single pilot. This
campaign will be significantly shorter than standard Bliss
Stage campaign. If you want it to go on a long time, allow
the pilot to reach higher-than-normal bliss before ending
the game.
One player controls the pilot, and no other characters.
Another player is the GM, controlling the authority figure.
All other characters are divided between the GM and the
remaining players.
A one-pilot game has one hope. After the hope has been
resolved, the non-pilot players collaborate on the final reso-
lution.
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Two Player CampaignBliss Stage may be played with only two players. A two
player game is naturally a single-pilot game (see above.)
One player owns the pilot, the other player is the GM and
portrays all other characters, including anchors.
During interlude actions, the pilot’s player plays the pilot
and the GM players all other characters. During a human-
ization action, the GM loans control of one or more charac-
ters to the other player.
For the climax of mission actions, replace “The Pilot is Safe”
with the table below.
Pilot’s Safety
Die Result Game Result
+ (5-6) The pilot stays safe. The anchor
retains control over the dream.
0 (3-4) The pilot’s safety is jeopardized. The
pilot gains one terror. The anchor
loses some control of the dream: the
pilot sees and hears things that the
anchor did not describe to him.
- (1-2) The pilot’s safety is abandoned. The
pilot gains one trauma and one
terror. The anchor loses all control,
and must sit helpless as the pilot
describes the nightmarish things he
sees and does.
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Absent playersIf a player is absent, their pilot does not go on any mis-
sions or participate in any interlude actions. Any anchors
that they control should not be used for missions. Their
secondary characters may be lent to other players for use
in interlude actions.
If a player is absent long-term (and will not come back),
either give permanent control of their pilot and anchor
characters to a new player (remember that each player
may not own more than one pilot, and the GM may not
own a pilot) or say that their characters have left the group,
breaking all relationships.
Guest PlayersIf you have a player who will not normally be visiting your
group playing with you for a single engagement, they can
still participate in the game, albeit in a more limited way.
Here are some general avenues that you might want to
pursue in such a situation.
Secondary CharactersLoan the player control of some secondary characters for
the duration of play. This will allow them to participate in
interlude actions. You might want to pay particular atten-
tion to these characters’ relationships during this engage-
ment.
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Guest PilotIf your resistance group is one of many other resistance
groups in the world, you might have the guest own a pilot
character who has come in from one of these other groups
to assist your local group with its military effort. In this case,
the GM should prepare an appropriate pilot (probably
using one of the templates) and definitely should pick this
pilot for at least one mission during the engagement.
An Unstable GroupSome groups are simply unstable -- you don’t know who
will be able to show up, or when, or why. Although it isn’t
ideal, it’s still possible to play Bliss Stage in such an environ-
ment.
The best approach to take here is to play a one pilot game,
as discussed above. Choose the player who can most reli-
ably attend engagements as the pilot. Choose the second-
most reliable person as the GM. All other characters are
controlled by who-ever is handy to control them.
Keep very good notes about what happened in each
game, so you can fill in anyone who wasn’t there.
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Advice for PlayThis chapter contains a few miscellaneous essays on how
to play the game of Bliss Stage. These are not necessary
for your play and should not be held as rigid rules. They
are simply here to serve as inspiration, insight, and general
discussion.
Maria: For this chapter, Ben is going to abandon talking through us characters and directly speak to you in his own voice, author to reader. It’s a break from the style of the last few chapters, but frankly we could use the break. I hope that you can work things out without us! See ya!
Chris, Damien, Phoebe: Bye, everybody! Thanks for reading!
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Owning Your Character and
the Heart of the GameThere is a temptation, when playing a role-playing game
which gives numerical values to things like trauma and
trust, to allow the numbers written down for your character
and his relationships to dictate your portrayal of that char-
acter and those relationships. So, if a relationship has a low
trust value, to portray that relationship as untrusting or, if a
character has a high trauma value, to portray that character
as the spitting image of the traumatized victim (infantilized,
quiet, and crying.)
There are some role-playing games where this sort of
play is expect, in the regular course of playing the game.
However, Bliss Stage does not have this expectation. In
fact, quite the opposite is true. The values given for the
characters and the relationships should never dictate your
portrayal of what those characters say and do except inas-
much as you make strategic decisions regarding them.
So, what do the values in the game do? Well, there are the
immediate game mechanical effects (stress keeps you from
building trust, intimacy gives power in missions, and so
on) but, additionally and more importantly, they serve as a
record of the character’s past actions. A highly traumatized
pilot has been through terrible things during their mis-
sions, but their reaction to it is entirely up to you, the player.
If anyone tries to use the mechanics of the game to limit
your portrayal or say that you shouldn’t portray a character
in some way, point them at this section and tell them to be
quiet.
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This is not to say that you should necessarily try to play
against type for your character. To take the example of the
highly traumatized character, the best course of action for
that character’s player is to be cautious during missions
and attempt for trauma relief from their interlude actions,
so there may be a lot of fear, gibbering, screaming, crying
and self-centered conversations. But you might decide that
your pilot is going to keep a stiff upper lip and not break
down. That’s an awesome decision! What the game’s num-
bers will do is show you the consequences of that decision:
likely a spiral of trauma and death.
In a way, allowing the cold numbers to dictate your char-
acters’ actions takes the heart out of the game. The heart of
the game is that we, the players, are given control of these
desperate kids in a desperate situation. They have impos-
sible choices set before them: Who do you love more, your
lover or your family? Will you kill yourself to save the world?
and so on ... and they have to face them and make up their
minds and live with the consequences. If you don’t step in
and make decisions for your characters, you’re abdicating
your responsibility as a player to step up and engage with
these paradoxes at the heart of the game.
The single most important responsibility you have as a
player of Bliss Stage is to take responsibility for the actions
of your characters. It’s also the most fun thing about play-
ing the game. So dig in!
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How to Own a PilotWhen you play a pilot, you’re the primary focus of the
action. During a mission, you’re going to need to commu-
nicate with the anchor, make important decisions about
your personal priorities versus the priorities of the authority
figure and the group as a whole. In general, you and every-
one will have more fun during missions if you make your
decisions based on your gut feelings about what to do,
rather than taking a long time to work out all the possible
ways to assign your dice and which will help you the most.
It’s not that taking a strategic approach is bad for the game
-- it won’t really help or hurt you very much -- but that
snap decision making makes for faster-moving and more
entertaining fiction.
During interlude actions, you’ll have the focus of the action
be on you. Again, it’s a good idea to be active. A passive pi-
lot isn’t going to get many action results except for trauma
relief. It’s better for everyone to actively try to get what you
need out of the relationship (you should be able to see that
clearly by looking at the relationship’s values). If you really
don’t know what to do, it’s sometimes good to sit back and
let the other players take the lead, but during an interlude
action the impetus is on your to keep things moving.
During a briefing action, you’re largely just there to listen.
Make sure to ask questions of the authority figure and nail
down the exact course of the mission. Volunteer or shirk as
you see fit.
During the final resolution actions the focus will be totally
on you. You get total control over how the pilot goes out,
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make sure it’s appropriate and cool. Likewise, you will prob-
ably be able to resolve a hope. The thing to do here is to
look honestly at all the past missions which have involved
this hope, then resolve the hope in a way that clearly
emerges from looking at the past. This doesn’t mean that
you should feel trapped by previous decisions: you aren’t
limited by anything. A string of failed missions can yield a
last minute victory, a string of glorious successes can be
eclipsed by a final failure. Rather, it just means that your
resolution must acknowledge them, respect them, show
what they’ve brought about, and then resolve the hope
once and for all. There’s some examples in the chapter on
resolution (pg 149), and if you feel uncertain don’t be afraid
to ask the other players for advice.
When you’re playing your pilot’s action it’s your time to
shine. Shine!
This is what it’s like for Pilots
You’re it. If you can succeed, if you can over-come your own shortcomings, then humanity maybe can survive. Maybe you can do better. Maybe the world can, someday, be normal again. But if you fail, it’s over. Not just for you, for everyone.
And they all know it. You can see it when he looks at you -- with a scorn barely masking his fear that a bunch of kids are going to make the difference between life and death -- or even, sometimes, when he can barely hide his pride. You can tell it in her tears after you make love, when she thinks you’re sleeping, or when she runs
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to embrace you after a mission and you can still see the terror in her eyes. Why can’t she love you enough to show you her pain?
Most of all, you can know it from the way they look at you as you walk by them, with awe and maybe a little trepidation, like you’re a thou-sand times cooler than a saturday morning car-toon, like you’re Luke Skywalker and Jesus Christ all rolled together into the most amazing hero in the world. You know it from when she told you, with a smile, that she wanted to pilot an ANIMa when she grew up, to be a pilot just like you. The admiration, the longing, the worship in your sister’s voice was so clear that it was all you could do to hide your emotion. You spent that whole night dry sobbing and dry heaving at the thought.
Try not to think that you’re already hurting her. Try not to think that you use her as a shield every time you go into a fight. Try not to think of the nightmares she has, every night, worse and worse. Try to imagine that things will be bet-ter, that if you fight harder someday things will be better.
There have never been battles more terrible than these battles. There has never been a war more important than this war. But you’re not fight-ing this war so that your little sister can go out and fight it again. No one deserves to see the things you’ve had seen. No one deserves to do the things you’ve had to do. Least of all her. If you can do it, if you can win, then no one will have to fight, ever again. Not like this. Not against these things.
And, if you lose, it’s not like it will matter anyway.
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How to Own the Authority
FigureThe authority figure’s presence looms large over the game.
Even in actions that he’s not physically present during will
often revolve around him, his idea, his goals, and his per-
sonality. So although the authority figure is portrayed like
an ordinary secondary character during interlude actions
and as your mouthpiece during briefing actions, he casts
a long shadow over the entire game, and how you portray
him is important.
Here’s the good news: Just like GMing, you can’t do it
wrong. The ideal authority figure is like the ideal boss, the
ideal principal, the ideal commander: removed yet en-
gaged, responsible but not meddling, firm but receptive to
criticism, patient yet always busy, a leader who allows his
followers to do the greatest work for him. He listens, and
when he speaks, everyone listens.
Your authority figure is inevitably going totally fail in some
of these aspects, succeed in some others, and muddle
along in most of them. How does he fulfill these ideals?
How does he delude himself about them? What things
does he just not have time?
Because if there’s one thing that an authority figure doesn’t
have enough of, it’s time.
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This is what it’s like for the Authority Figure
So here’s what it is like to be an authority figure. Have you ever taken care of kids before? I mean, like, a big group of teenagers and you just know that you were never as cool and pretty as they ever were, and they hate you except when they’re worshipping you? That’s what it’s like to be an authority figure, except for it’s every damn day, and you never have a single interaction with another adult or a peer.
If you’re trained for it, like if you’re a teach-er or a youth group leader, you can handle it. But you weren’t trained for it. You survived into it, and chances are that kids are the last thing you wanted to ever deal with.
Because, you see, you’re an adult who survived the Bliss. All the adults who survived had one trait in common -- insomnia. Either from stress or from drugs or from mental illness and, let’s face it, by this point it’s five years without sleep and, yeah, now it’s “all of the above.” It’d be good to know, playing the character, what he does to stay awake. Reads all the time? Pops pills? Meditation and chanting? Watches the same damn tape of Gilligan’s Island over and over and over?
So here you are, in charge for all you know the last humans on the whole planet, all alone in a group of people who need you and hate you, you haven’t slept in five years and studies show that, like, what, it’s 72 hours before the suicidal de-
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pression hits? Chances are you’re having sex with at least one of the kids, and chances are that you hate yourself for that and for everything else.
That’s what it’s like.
How to Own your Secondary
CharactersIt’s wonderful to play a secondary character, because you
can relax. It’s during an interlude, but the spotlight is not
on you. While you can do all sorts of interesting things,
you are not required to do anything but sympathetically
portray the character’s reactions to the pilot’s actions.
Let me spend a little bit of the page explaining “sympathet-
ically” in more detail. The key thing to understand about
secondary characters is that you should see them as real
characters with real desires, fears, hopes, and dreams that
are in no way lesser than those of pilots, anchors, and the
authority figure. To portray them well, you should sympa-
thize with them. Any secondary character is, at the least,
an abandoned child. They have huge, gaping emotional
needs, and they’re going to be looking for someone to fill
them. So whenever a secondary character is involved in an
action, they’ll have things that they want from the pilots
and other characters, and its up to you whether and how
they act on these desires.
So you have a huge opportunity when you’re playing a
secondary character. If you want, you can introduce huge
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dramatic things, beg and cry or smirk or destroy a pilot’s
life. But if you’d rather sit back and play reactively and let
the pilot take the spotlight, you can also do that. Both are
totally suitable for the game, and if you go with what-
ever you’re in the mood for it’ll be more fun for everyone
involved.
This is what it’s like for kids
More than any other child, from any other soci-ety from any other point in history, you weren’t ready for this. All your life you’ve just been shuttled to school and activities, plied with toys, video games, and TV to keep you quiet, coddled and educated and shaped into some sort of beautiful useless thing. You probably didn’t even spend a lot of time around other kids, and certainly not unsupervised -- unsupervised play is dangerous. Someone might get hurt!
So you don’t know how to make food, how to get around, even how to interact with other humans who aren’t your parents and teachers. That’s the sort of kid you are. And then, wham, no warning, they’re all dead.
Well, not dead. Just sleeping, but good as dead, really. And after you had your fun few days of eating candy down at the corner store, staying up ‘til dawn playing video-games, and getting in painful torturous conflicts with your brother; and after you had your grief, crying and shaking your gently breathing mom, mom who was the whole world and the one who cooked and screaming for your dad right in his ear, and he doesn’t even say any-
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thing and just that smile they have, and after you ran away because it was too scary and cried yourself to sleep under a park bench somewhere; after all that, yeah, sure, but what’s important here, and what you didn’t understand when you ate all those snickers and mac and cheese boxes is that you don’t have any god-damn food.
And fucked if you know how to grow it.
Somehow, you survived, and in surviving I’ll bet that you did some really horrible things. I bet that there isn’t a kid alive today who hasn’t killed over a can of beans, or at least had some-one else do the killing for them. Maybe you ran off to the countryside (or you’re from the coun-tryside) and managed to get some food to grow. Maybe you were in scouts, and maybe even not the shitty scouts they’ve got in the cities where they don’t teach you anything but order, and so you knew how make your way in the woods, and you took your friends and ran. Maybe you were a rov-ing gang of thugs and hoodlums, staking out turf and canned food in the city center. I don’t know how you make it, but you do. Those years, those first years when everything was hard, those are ingrained on the back of your head.
Not to mention the remotes. ‘cause you prob-ably saw them just as they landed -- searing red balls of metal and flesh from the sky that un-folded into some strange nightmare of your old toys -- and who knows what you thought for those first few minutes before they opened fire. It was a year later, just as you were getting stable for a breath, just as you were learning how to live. They flushed you out of where-ever you had settled, drove you into a nomadic, hunted exile, traveling only when you could be safe, fearing every little twitch and noise. How did you sur-
182
vive them? Did you eat bugs and worms out of the earth? Cats and rats and roaches?
It was a bad life and, somewhere in your heart, you knew that you were going to die, and that your death was going to be the end of humans. Just like the comics, except then there was al-ways Superman or someone to save them. No good aliens this time, though, just a life of hunger, desperation, and fear.
For most kids, that was probably the end -- they died somewhere hidden away, if not from the robot drones that found them then from hunger, thirst, or insanity. But that wasn’t the end for you. Be-cause you found them. You found us.
Someone had managed to figure out how the aliens were controlling their robot remotes, and turned it around into a weapon. Someone, maybe the same someone, or maybe someone else, had managed to build a society -- a brutal, nasty, small, barely living society, but a society nonetheless. And you found them, and they welcomed you in. People are rare enough these days. And, well, maybe you’re not a Pilot, but you’re still a part of the fight. It’s a long-shot, but you just might pull through this after all.
Sometimes you think about your toys, or your school, or your playstation, or even your par-ents, but not very often. It makes you sad to think about those things. It makes you feel wrong inside, like you never really had a chance. It makes you realize all the missing parts of your life. And if you were sad, well, that might make a Pilot sad, and that might mean their life, and yours.
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How to Own an AnchorYour primary responsibility as the player of an anchor is to
lead the pilot through missions. While you’re doing this, it’s
pretty important that you speak directly to the pilot’s player
in the voice of your anchor character, describing to him
what’s going on, what he is experiencing, and the tactical
situations that he finds himself in. Because of this anchor
has a shocking amount of control over the direction of a
mission. An anchor who likes a pilot can sooth a bad dream
into a semblance of sanity. An anchor that doesn’t like her
pilot can turn a mission a nightmare, literally.
To this end, the relationship between the anchor and the
pilot is of primary importance, not simply because it forms
the chasis of the pilot’s ANIMa, but because the anchor
will ultimately determine not only the success or failure of
the mission, but often whether the pilot lives or dies. So it
is imperative that, during missions, you really get into the
head and the heart of your anchor character, figuring out
what she wants, how she sees the pilot, and from that what
she’s going to lead him into.
During interlude actions, the anchor’s role seems much like
that of a secondary character. However, because anchor
relationships are more prone to stress, not to mention
simply more important in general, expect to be the center
of attention in a lot of interludes.
Anchors are under enormous stresses. If a mission goes
well, the pilot is a hero. But if a mission goes poorly, often
the anchor is held at fault. They are prone to cracking, and
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their relationships with pilots are always more complicated
than they seem at first blush.
Anchors are in many ways the emotional center of Bliss
Stage. When you play an anchor, it’s your chance to explore
these sorts of complex emotions. If you play to wrench
your own heartstrings, you probably won’t go awry.
This is what it’s like for Anchors
Here’s what it’s like to be an anchor: You get chosen because you’ve got a tight relationship with a pilot. He’s the love of your life, maybe not sex but probably, and he’s going to save the world just for you, and you’re going to talk him through it and sing him into it. Just you and him, you’re going to make a difference, you’re going to be there for him when he fights, and then you’re looking into the black soup of nightmares that he’s wading through and seeing yourself reflected back with all the reasons why he hates you and you’re seeing that all the time, and if you even flinch once or get angry once or say any damn thing dollars to donuts it’s going to kill him, so you’ve got that all in your head, and you can’t tell anyone. And then there are others, other girls that he’s in love with, the other people that he cares about more than you, and you can see them through there, you can hear him call their name as they fight at his side, and every-one smiles like its a good thing and hell if you open your mouth, and if he dies it’s your fault because he didn’t love you enough.
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And then he dies. Because pilots die, because it’s a war, because, after all the lies and be-trayals, you didn’t love him enough to save him that last time. And there’s a funeral, maybe, but probably not even, and everyone forgets the dead pilots but you would remember him in your heart, because he was the love of your life, except for that all that love got burnt up by nightmares and now all that remains is a dull thudding.
Then, you know, you’ve got the anchor train-ing, so they introduce you to someone new, and say, ‘hey, why don’t you fall in love with this guy, too, because that would be to our strategic advantage and, you know, the whole saving human-ity thing. And all you want to do is curl up into a ball and cry yourself to death, but, god help you, you fall for him again, and maybe not as strong as before, but it’s the same damn shit.
Repeat until you get used to it.
That’s what it’s like to be an anchor.
How to be a GMWhenever you play Bliss Stage, someone will be a game
master. The game master, ideally, should be the person
with the most experience at the game (so if you’re all play-
ing for the first time, the person who read this book all the
way through should be the GM), although it can really be
anyone who has some substantial experience with playing
the game. Often, the GM will also be the social organizer
and host of the game, but that isn’t necessary at all.
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As a GM, you’ll have a very different set of responsibilities
than you had as a non-GM player. These responsibilities
aren’t more or less difficult, nor do they have a greater or
lesser influence on the game. But they do require you to
pay even more scrupulous attention to the reactions and
feelings of your fellow players.
The GM’s responsibilities are outlined below.
Facilitate consensusThe GM’s primary job in a game of Bliss Stage is to facilitate
consensus amongst the players. There are many stages
in the game, starting from the initial prep and carrying
through to mission scenes, where a group of players will
have to come to consensus about any number of things.
Most groups of people -- basically those that haven’t been
trained in consensus -- will have a hard time coming to
consensus about anything, certainly at a rate which would
make the game fun to play.
Ultimately, you’ll come to your own style of consensus.
Here are some ideas to get your started.
If you’re going to say you don’t like something, say
something positive. Basically, don’t allow someone to sit
there and say “no” to everything without offering some
creative input of their own.
No negative input at all. Some GMs don’t let anyone
offer negative input at all -- only changes and additions
to things already said.
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•
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Take the first good idea. Someone will say something
awesome and everyone will be nodding their heads. Cut
off discussion right at that second, before anyone tries to
modify it ever so slightly and makes it not as cool.
Call out the shy ones. If someone is hanging back and
not participating, try to move the spotlight onto them for
a little bit. Most people are creative if pushed, but some
people are shy about it.
It’s also important, when you’re facilitating consensus
about something, to back off of your own ideas a little bit.
As the facilitator, you inherently have more power, and
while this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t contribute, it
does mean that you should make a conscious decisions to
put other people’s contributions before your own.
Be preparedContrasting the above, in any situation in which the group
is expected to come up with an idea, and no one has any
good ideas, it will be your responsibility to throw some-
thing out there so that the game can move on. As the GM,
you are the baseline from which other people are going
to improvise, so it’s on you to give the basic actions of the
aliens, the basic ideas about the group’s history, and so on
and so forth.
The important thing to remember here is that you don’t
have to come up with something brilliant, or even some-
thing good, just something that’s good enough to move
the game along. Relying on previous history (what have
the aliens done before, what are the common themes in
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•
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the game, and so on) will let you make some snap deci-
sions without worrying too much.
Basically, if there’s ever a time when everyone is sitting
around staring blankly at each other, trying to figure out
what to do next, it’s your job as the GM to keep things
moving.
Likewise, the GM is the only player that needs to prepare
between games. Your preparations can be pretty simple,
however. Just come up with some basic ideas missions
relating to the group’s hopes and you’re probably good to
go. If you’re not good at making up mission goals on the
fly, come up with a distinct set of goals for each one.
Plan MissionsAs the GM, you’re the only player of Bliss Stage (outside of
the host) who has any planning to do between sessions of
the game. Fortunately, you don’t have to do a lot of plan-
ning, mostly just plan the missions.
If you’re good at improvisation, all you need is three or four
ideas for missions, and you can improvise the exact mission
goals during the briefing scenes. If you’re not good at
improvisation, get some note paper and chart out the mis-
sions just like the examples of page 144.
A good mission has to do with the game’s hopes and is
something that pilots won’t want to just give up on. If you
can’t think of anything else, put their strong relationships
at risk.
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If you do plan the missions out in advance, don’t assume
that you’re going to get to use all of them. Sometimes the
situation in the game is going to change rapidly, and old
mission ideas have to be modified or outright discarded.
This is okay! It didn’t take you more than a couple of min-
utes to plan it anyway, right?
Gauge the opposition and
resources: Missions, interludes,
and traumaAs a GM, you’re going to be in charge of making life dif-
ficult for the pilots. In this, you’re going to have to gauge
how much difficulty is appropriate to your group’s story.
The most important thing to understand is that you cannot
make a bad decision here. All pilots are bound to pass 108
bliss or 6 trauma eventually, and in either case they will
have a good shot at being able to resolve a hope. If you
make things more difficult for the pilots, they will probably
head towards a traumatic death, which means that your
game will be tragic or bittersweet at best. If you make
things less difficult, they will tend towards a blissed death,
which has the capacity for a true “happy ending” (although
not necessarily.) Both of these are fine. You cannot screw
up your game by doing this wrong.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the ways
that you can adjust the difficulty, and what you might like
to do with it.
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The primary way of adjusting the game’s difficulty is chang-
ing the ratio of interlude actions to mission goals. If there
are more interlude actions, the game will be easier. If there
are more mission goals, the game will be harder. Generally
speaking, as a baseline, a slightly less than one interlude
action per mission goal makes it possible for the pilots
to generally keep things okay without developing their
relationships too much. If there are more interlude actions,
things will be easier on the pilots, and you’ll see some re-
lationship development. If there are less interlude actions,
things will be harder on the pilots, and relationships will fall
apart.
If this is your first time GMing the game, give three inter-
lude actions between every mission, including the pilot’s
privileged action. Once you’ve got the hang of things a
little bit, feel free to adjust that number throughout the
game -- giving periods of peace and rest when the pilots
can build of their relationships followed by flurries of com-
bat and action where their relationships are ground down
and destroyed.
Another way of adjusting the game’s difficulty is in your
use of trauma. Generally speaking, threatening is the most
efficient use of trauma, and threatening the pilot’s safety or
the mission goal will cause the most difficulty for the pilot.
By contrast, only threatening a weakened relationship will
have any strong effect unless you threaten it repeatedly,
driving it into the ground with stress. Spending extra dice
to cause panic, endanger a category, or threaten a non-
active relationship isn’t as efficient a use of your dice, but
can sometimes be appropriate the situation at hand or be
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useful if you want to give a traumatized pilot an easier time
of it.
The best way to figure out how to use trauma is to watch
your players. Each player will develop their own set of
priorities for mission dice. Once you’ve figured out what
categories they find most important, threaten those when
you want to scare them, threaten others when you want
some relief.
The last and most subtle means by which you can make
the game more or less difficult is through calling for
interludes. If you call for actions featuring characters that
already have strong relationships, that makes it much easier
on the pilots. If you call for actions featuring characters
that have weaker relationships, it will make things much
more difficult for the pilots. Also, if you call for actions
featuring characters that right now have horrible strains on
their relationship, it is more likely to result in trust-breaking
behavior, which generally makes everything more tense.
Know the rulesAs the GM, you’re probably the most experienced player in
the group. Even if none of you have played Bliss Stage be-
fore, you’re probably the one most familiar with this book
(at least, you’ll have read it through once.)
While the game is on the simpler side for most tabletop
role-playing games, it is still pretty complicated, with a lot
of moving parts. Also, there will be times when my writing
isn’t clear enough and things get bogged down.
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It will probably be your responsibility to understand the
rules and their spirit well enough to keep things moving
when there’s an unclearness about the rules.
When you do get things wrong, it’s best to just move on if
you can, rather than trying to retroactively do things right.
Likewise, if the rules are unclear, the best thing to do is to
discuss things with the group, and rapidly try to reach a
consensus about how to proceed for this session. After the
session is over, look through the book and figure out what
the rules actually say to do.
As long as you’ve got the basic interactions between the
values down, you can’t go too far wrong, so don’t panic if
you’ve gotten a rule wrong. Just note it down and make
sure to pay attention in the future.
Don’t answer the big questionsA lot of the above talked about how, as the GM, it is often
your job to have the answers. But there is also very impor-
tant things that you must not have answers to. The players
are given the right to resolve the big questions of the story
-- the hopes -- and while you can foreshadow and imply
answers to those, you are not allowed to answer them
forthright.
There are also some big questions of the setting: What are
the aliens? Why are they here? Is there a fundamental real-
ity to the dream world? Even if these things are not a part
of the hopes, you shouldn’t have in your head “what’s really
going on.” You can have theories, ideas, and speculation,
and you should feel free to share these with the other play-
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ers, but until such things actually come out of play (if they
ever do) it is not your place to say, absolutely, the nature of
the Bliss Stage world.
Leaving open these ambiguities leaves space for fear and
mystery and hope and despair -- all the core things that the
game does. If you close them, you close off access to fear
and mystery, hope and despair. Don’t do that.
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ConclusionThis is the part of the book where I’d summarize every-
thing we’ve been through so far and walk you step by step
through what everything means and what the ultimate
conclusion of the book is. But I’m not going to. This could
be because I’m hard-headed, arrogant, or simply because
I don’t know how to structure a book very well. Really,
though, it’s because there can be no conclusion to Bliss
Stage. The end of this book is not the end of the story. It is
the beginning of the story.
To reach the conclusion, you have to play the game. Poke
around your hometown for good places for hideouts.
Throw your hopes on the table. Make up your pilots and
your anchors. Go on missions. Take your interludes. Suffer in
your decisions. Die for your hopes.
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And then, at the end, you’ll have your conclusion. Maybe
you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. But it will be yours, in a true
and fundamental way that I could never duplicate with
vulgar text in a paper book. You will have built it out of
your character’s struggle, love, pain, and hope. And you will
understand it, personally, in a way that some guy writing
some book could never understand.
This book is a gateway into your story. Here it is. I’ve given
it to you. It’s up to you to step through it, to play the game,
to find out the ending. And when you’re done, when you’re
all finished up, maybe you can tell me what the conclusion
of this game is.
This is the end of our time together. You must take the next
part with your friends, leaving me behind. All that’s left for
me to do is thank you for coming this far with me, wish you
luck with the rest of the journey, and say goodbye.
Until next time...
yrs--
--Ben Lehman
Hungry?
FOODfor
GOOD WORKERSJoin the team of ANIMa pilots, and we will pay you with food, water, and shelter. You will be safe with us. Dangerous work is strictly optional. Help us fight the war against the alien menace!
Meet at the intersection of Main and 7th at sundown on Saturdays. Do not try to attack the meeting site. Our representatives will bring no food or supplies, and we will respond with OVERWHELMING FORCE if necessary.
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InspirationsThere are so many inspirations for this game it’s difficult for
me to express them all. Invariably, there will be “thirteenth
fairies:” books and movies and people and games that I’ve
forgotten about. In all likelihood, there are more of these
than there are actually credited inspirations in this chap-
ter. Nonetheless, I think it’s better to be incomplete in my
thanks than totally negligent in them, and for those people
and stories left behind, I can only beg your forgiveness and
promise to correct my errors in future editions of the text.
HumansEmily Care Boss
Andy Kitkowski
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Eero Tuovinen
Mark Woodhouse
Junichi Inoue
Vincent Baker
Cecelia Holland
Caroline Isaacs
Carolyn Lehman
Ron Edwards
Rich Forest
Alexis Siemon
Joshua Newman
Jonathan Walton
Dave Ramsden
Jake Richmond
Shizero Nezze
Christian Griffen
Clinton R. Nixon
John DeHope
Dan Ravipinto
All the girls and boy who were listed as anchors, who I
will not give the last names to prevent embarrassment
Anime and MangaGunbuster
Patlabor
Evangelion
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VOTOMS
Gundam
Macross Plus
Robotech
Ghost in the Shell
Paprika
Nausicaä
Ultraman
Serial Experiments Lain
GamesAngel Gear
My Life With Master
Otherkind
Pretender
Breaking the Ice
Shooting the Moon
The Riddle of Steel
Ars Magica
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.
Robotech
Apples to Apples
The Face of Angels
Under the Bed
Panels
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BooksMy Side of the Mountain
Slake’s Limbo
Lord of the Flies
Catcher on the Rye
The Void Captain’s Tale
The Language of the Night
Ender’s Game
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
The Book of Going Forth By Day
The Song of Inanna
The Revelation of John
The Divine Comedy
I have forgotten so many it’s insane
PlaytestersOne group, no matter the strength of their bravery, no mat-
ter the strength of their love, cannot save the world alone.
It was only with the cooperation of resistance cells around
the world that this text could be produced. Let us never
forget their sacrifices and their courage.
Oakland Resistance CellChris Chinn
Liam Burke
Kate Williamson
Ion Yannopolous
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Dreamation Resistance CellDaniel Ravipinto
Matthew Gandy
Daniel Heacox
Indianapolis Resistance CellDev Pursthyanka
John Kim
Gordon Landis
Chris Chinn
Somerville Resistance CellAlexis Siemon
Jonathan Walton
Kendra Tornheim
Dave Ramsden
Iisalmi Resistance CellSipi Myllynen
Henrik Mikkonen
Sallamaari Janhunen
Jesse Kaukonen
Eero Tuovinen
Minneapolis Resistance CellMark Woodhouse
Katherine Shane
Adam Cerling
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Plainfield Resistance CellEmily Care Boss
Phoebe Matthews
Edmonton Resistance CellJames Brown
Eric Finley
James Tipman
Fox West
Turku Resistance CellJ. Tuomas Harviainen
Mikko Tolonen
Joakim Verkerk
Antti Vestola
Petaling Jaya Resistance CellPoh Tun Kai
Mok Han Kit
Lim Vin Tsen
Douglas Larke
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